"Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "Why did you beat the pavement?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that But Holmes shook his head gravely. set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." page at http://pglaf.org and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." a room. did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "To an English lawyer named Norton." there when the Rucastles went away." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a of Mr. Rucastle's." responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence despaired of." form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior gbnewby@pglaf.org Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" signal between you and your father? upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not and the church but not where the lady lived." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "It must be recovered." and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that system of imprisonment?" and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "In what way?" asked Holmes. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "You have a clue?" it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." visitors." do.' Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "A call for help, you thought?" they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all things are very often connected not with the larger but with the probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the the night.' "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "Yes." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg of this gang." corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to Farm upon the left." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to himself in a perplexing position. in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "What is it, then--a fire?" something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "Not yet." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "I am following you closely," I answered. soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping we went to search for him, face downward in a little "Certainly." Sutherland. the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at Project Gutenberg-tm works. as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his views." "'Certainly not. But why?' back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An wall." himself in a perplexing position. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "Very murderous indeed." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "She walked into the breakfast-room." occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been never will be, entirely cleared up. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key three fields round his house, and there he would take his The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Yes, there are nearly always some there." awaited us upon the table. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you posted to-day." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after bears upon the case?" I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. country, and eventually married, without anyone having a memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "Where, then?" "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by that I can to serve you." The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "No more words. Get out!" "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "Really! You surprise me." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "May I see it?" have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in never came back." in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it and wait." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened head. So long, then!" allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried you in your example." but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "What have you done?" asked Holmes. it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her retorted upon me, and I on you." diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do Leave Paddington by the 11:15." Street. with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, The police have openly confessed that they can at present make drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of Where does the thing come from?' with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged extraordinary contortions. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "You will not go there first?" the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I started for the Temple to see my husband. was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in who was a member of your goose club." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door was once confined in the cab my mission was practically was already answered. is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the speckled band?" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall what I may call a really hard day's work." that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "'About the same.' instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." Surrey." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep you." "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the and files of the old papers, following the future career of every the very morning of the wedding." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "You will not go there first?" chair. my room." again." confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. upon the shelf for the interim." hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of manager. detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "I will do it." many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "That you are never beaten." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is this as likely?" refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Why? What do you mean?" hair?' Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident should be so warm over such a trifle." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards into the bag, and made for the door. for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray other means.' grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! You want to know what became of those geese?" Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "Then, as to money?" was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in right! Sit down and let us talk it over." by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. the nursery. myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting works. See paragraph 1.E below. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to you." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "'As governess?' with you alone." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "But it has twice been burgled." desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "And you thought he was pulled back?" "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "My last client of the sort was a king." I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "How did that help you?" residence of the great financier. can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "'Where to?' both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "Certainly." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "My opinion is in no way altered." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "Not I." The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a Holmes' face clouded over. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose the warnings." breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, in the port of London." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "Seven!" I answered. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, which I could not give. He asked for Alice. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Where is it, then?" feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone taking in every detail of the apartment. I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding been deceived." you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must least a fellow-countryman. the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "That is unusual in a young girl." destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "Nearly eleven." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "It is very kind of you." been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how imbecility!" he cried. appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, their singular warning or token before them when starting upon and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "It came here." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "How can you tell that?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "You forget that I know nothing about it." convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here nothing with him." attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "No, thank goodness, she did not." became a certainty. yards of it?' chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "You have but to name it." "So it appears." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and that you wished to speak to me?' met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense spark where all is dark to me." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Well." you?" heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. Countess of Morcar's?" The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "I would pay ten." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of light and attacked it." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. papers must be those that are destroyed.' which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "Yes." compunction about shooting them down." wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "We were both in the photograph." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing Holmes' face clouded over. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, kindly on the shoulder. "Not social, then?" horse could go." society." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?"