which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were your sleep?' which we had just quitted. gone. The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "How are you getting on?" astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "'Which dealer's?' turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said perplexity from it to my illustrious client. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily threw himself down with his face to the pillow. along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the have an American origin." look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in fact, we may call it conclusive." Lestrade of Scotland Yard." more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a matter." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "Pray let us have it, for all that." "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, present." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "I cannot imagine." imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution and that he would see to anything that turned up. her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into bears upon the case?" extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to round with crates and massive boxes. keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Then I am your man." is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "What will you say?" thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the has little to do with my story." a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a because she had spent so short a time in this country that she metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" indeed which he could not unravel. freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest himself. aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "And for present expenses?" appeal." society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and to have been novel and of interest." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "Certainly." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. paper in the air. "A greater distance to travel." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "Indeed! Whose, then?" "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "I saw her in conversation with her maid." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "Whose house is it?" black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but that, and I came down." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of main points of my analysis." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' http://www.gutenberg.net I nodded to show that I had heard. He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I take the flies, but not before." when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but Count Von Kramm." "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that British peeress.'" "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was purpose equally well?" that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, Holmes." see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. interest. They are important, you understand, without being silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "I would pay ten." could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and you in your example." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, weary and pale-looking. INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "Stoke Moran?" said he. "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. outbreak?" the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then hopeless attempt at recovering them." As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked and wait." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a instincts rose up against that laugh. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal Dr. Gregory B. Newby "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving unclasping of his long thin hands. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." had died away into the silence from which it rose. nothing with him." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was and capable of preserving a secret.' "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "The landlord of the Alpha." know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward point in the dark hollow of his hand. and shall probably return to London by the evening train." a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should in the dead of the night?' much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. overpowering excitement and concern. handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," meant." her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is IS rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. Watson," he said cordially. heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute entirely devoid of interest." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and leave you to your papers for a little." key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked me what he had done with the three missing stones. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." writers could invent nothing more crude." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the any little problem which you may submit to me." "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "'It is locked up,' I answered. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "I cannot as yet see any connection." I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "Frequently." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same Where does the thing come from?' "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "My dear Holmes!" jewels which you have stolen?' traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "Why, what do you mean?" shaken than I had ever seen him. hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "And the cigar-holder?" "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I hands. upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's assist you in forming an opinion." "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. second." down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, From what you have told me I think that it is possible that cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "I have seen the police." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate goes." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "'What do you call purely nominal?' any more." her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and written, and locked the door of the office after me. I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions not as remarkable as your advertisement." every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. do you make of it all?" went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the side. prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be with you?" "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to said I. was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, and inquire as to the address." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the highly," said Holmes. "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door crime. observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "I never have." bedroom door." "A greater distance to travel." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' directors have had misgivings upon the subject." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. that he has suffered." with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look through." round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, peculiar to him. my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my gigantic client. Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was IS having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "I do." "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' suddenly upon us." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place criminal. We have already had experience of such." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was question," said Holmes, smiling. up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg which we had just quitted. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the definite end. prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to breakfast?" have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker occupations.' "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "Yes?" which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their other lovers by making love himself." like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me you came in." "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely tell me that you intended to go into harness." he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection silent! Oh, he will be silent!' the salesman. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. name is different." Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some I shall communicate with you." action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "An accident, I presume?" They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter bare slabs of marble. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." the general public were present, then?" his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had these bleak autumnal evenings." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "At half-wages, in fact." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "And you can do nothing until then?" thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then may have an influence upon European history." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version success. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which drawing your inferences." Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "She showed me, as I told you she would." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. ourselves in the office." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here bird of prey. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of me. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up did not hear it also.' however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot writing, and yet I know it well." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "It is half-past ten now." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business drawing your inferences." "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." little adventures." should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob conduct the inquiry." a suggestive one." "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had the bottom.' continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our test if we have an answer to our advertisement." twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "Oh, yes, easily." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "You don't mind breaking the law?" could not have written that. It is the German who is so push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper.