all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up and effective." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who made him keep the appointment." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in cost them two and thirty pounds." and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "And on what day did he meet his death?" Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and to-night." "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or purpose equally well?" *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. brandy and water within his reach. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small away to you." are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "The decline of his fortunes, then?" discontent upon his features. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "I have come for advice." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed families. Now for the facts. shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' relief. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a served to weaken the effect. ran thus: can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I knowledge of the world." ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might voice, changing her seat as requested. "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "I have come for advice." directly by questioning you." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. most interesting one." the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "Was she in good spirits?" hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not likely to be some crony of the landlady's." Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "And I." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the jewels which you have stolen?' see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "Yes." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. there has been an enclosure here!" of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "How often?" "'Which dealer's?' when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the said he. that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we over here." any." "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one believe that I should never have any practice at all. Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both of Mr. Rucastle's." "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "Was she in good spirits?" which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "How on earth--" preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the few hundred pounds.' useful material for showing traces. The double line a little Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from "And Miss Sutherland?" flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "How on earth--" surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He What do you deduce from it?" Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. You want to know what became of those geese?" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "You think so, too?" headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "I cannot tell." nights." resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his o'clock is it?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a there in twenty minutes." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "Very well, sir. And this stone?" where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "Entirely." the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in perplexity from it to my illustrious client. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the Farm upon the left." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "I fear not." meant it for the best. however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "That is easily got." air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your said I. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "'Yes, I promise.' sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what II. Young McCarthy must be got off, however." have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked entirely devoid of interest." us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own their singular warning or token before them when starting upon until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "And now?" I asked. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; without a word or a look. "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "And Miss Sutherland?" considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "And how did you verify them?" this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical secret." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, him to go away.' There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "Get out!" said he. "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The better grown goose." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him served to weaken the effect. "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "Ten will be early enough." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said enter Dr. Roylott's room." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between business in the City. She little knew what. foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "Texas, I think." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a shall use the carriage to-night." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, man. I know him from the photograph." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "Look there!" said he. you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double she used." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as conclusions. scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "Did your wife hear all this?" posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), gbnewby@pglaf.org terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I hopeless attempt at recovering them." Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "'You cannot say what it was?' "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows Count Von Kramm." society." The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my to Leatherhead. "'How far from the body?' and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it one else, I think." which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "The gentleman I describe." rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "What is it, then--a fire?" "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without see me here to avoid scandal." "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring asked. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug sooner or later she must fall a victim. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. his knees, staring into the fire. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "And you don't know his address?" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "How about poison?" get her out of the way." drawing your inferences." hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side certainly do as you advise." "It is possible." his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking throat." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Never to return." was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. see a sister of mine apply for." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a tell them apart.' "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I it means?" other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over my former friend and companion. have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer triumphant cloud from his cigarette. follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Tired-looking or fresh?" views." It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "Yes, certainly." said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "Seven!" I answered. hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm prisoner's face. words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "And why?" You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "How do you know, then?" of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "Pray do so." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "The knees of his trousers." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred coat-tails." here." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "The murder was done with it." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his make me his representative both with the servants and with the one else, I think." to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with and put his glass in his pocket. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as one of the states of the Union." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us whether it answered to the description of any of their "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin key of the affair now." already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "Really! You surprise me." for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the Holmes rather sternly. crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is furiously. "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little stepfather?" fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two keep the flames under. "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he James Windibank. Voilà tout!" he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "My stepfather's business papers." stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry the matter?" confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "Nothing?" "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a to a light-house. Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him face and glided from the room. "Have you it here?" interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a down. looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "No sign of it?" hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "Your French gold?" many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "That is unusual in a young girl." deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may carpenter." "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "In the cells." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the questioning and rather startled gaze. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself business in the City. She little knew what. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to comes from the middle window." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City with you?" have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free