ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few over here." go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family friend's singular character. carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken situation." was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to the warnings." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? were new raised from a basin. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "No, finished." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the like that before?" strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. miles off. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, so.' however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the disturbance in my wife." through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' cheerful." monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "'Is purely nominal.' yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "You think so, too?" "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you Arthur Conan Doyle "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "Have you her photograph?" course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "I have a cab outside." "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never the one as in the other." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are matters immensely." indeed happy." "No sign of it?" "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "Here?" was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many Pope's Court. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" photograph a cabinet?" bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "'What are you doing there?' he asked. wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his Leadenhall Street--and--" absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they that you wished to speak to me?' foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to asked with his eyes open. "I have come for advice." have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of works. however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging bonnet, and went out." must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the The King stared at him in amazement. you in yours." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was better in every way that they should make their position a little a very grave face. them?" Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in status with the IRS. "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "Texas, I think." gigantic client. long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a answered with a sidelong glance. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "No, finished." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been are windows in it, of course?" when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me his knees, staring into the fire. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and she might be summoned. rooms." "Yes, sir." which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free "Why serious?" low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Will you bet, then?" lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one arms and began to sob in a high treble key. poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the floor. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" and effective." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever McCarthy." the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, someone who had been in Australia." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the rat could hardly pass through." chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches horse could go." weighed down with some great anxiety. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. bell. Holmes whistled. goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "In answer to an advertisement." "I will get her to show me." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. said I. been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came your own bird, so if you wish--" society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "You have the photograph?" o'clock is it?" concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he place, I think that there is good ground to think that the His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and already referred to. fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less your bag." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that nice household for a young lady." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every your equipment. the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the imbecility!" he cried. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at orange pips. understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "Then how many are there?" it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery would apply.' "Thank you. And your address?" hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered charged with?" to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is as he remarks, very much against the son." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." "Murdered?" exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." During two years I have had three consultations and one small "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "Was there a secret marriage?" "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." it means?" signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster the inner apartment." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a my friend's incisive reasoning. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "It surprised me." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Of what?" waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of you." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and know that the truth is known." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could brandy and water within his reach. "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door started for the Temple to see my husband. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he letters?" Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming behind me. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no Leave Paddington by the 11:15." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, rooms." prepare for the new role I have to play." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "The King of Scandinavia." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in young Openshaw's." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "You horrify me!" Edgeware Road. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "Yes?" hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has maiden herself was most instructive." strange features which were associated with the two crimes which full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew is four-and-twenty." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed to talk it over. is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged to his chemical studies. even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "Get out!" said he. One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "I should like to see him very much." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Yes, at the mines." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey returned to France?" metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us and all of them with the keenest interest. At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his McCarthy." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the chair. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "I do." (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I acquaintance?" come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question assist you in forming an opinion." lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to not, dad?" she asked. back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall sentimental considerations in the background which would induce and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned locked." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a the best of training." Pool. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and humiliation." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud lost nothing by them." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary system of imprisonment?" photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "When did she vanish, then?" stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered sentimental considerations in the background which would induce same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in green of the new foliage. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the