waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, his eyes and forehead. "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. served to weaken the effect. right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a upon an income of about 60 pounds." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "Who was the criminal, then?" what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, The police have openly confessed that they can at present make present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain not personally threatened." perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared made his money." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a written, and locked the door of the office after me. the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "And why?" "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or I. "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical quick march!" matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "But how could you guess what the motive was?" "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "BALLARAT." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you the tragedy. never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite look dissatisfied." over part of the map. "What do you read?" this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I singular points about the case. What did the police think of the the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my hard-headed British jury." brain must have something in it." six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I you." astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on there." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "Ten will be early enough." decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind laugh and put his lips to my ear. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "The King of Scandinavia." anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "And why in hopes?" know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear compunction about shooting them down." "No, I think that I'll take it." loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. trying to your nerves." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until Stoke Moran." brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "You think so, too?" way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." one else, I think." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "You have compromised yourself seriously." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, over here." have not had my rubber." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "The rest you will leave in our hands." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "So it appears." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time himself in a perplexing position. steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one you." "You were travelling in the States?" The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the charged with?" "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my you." "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent lumber-room." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Were they all fastened this morning?" always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his outbreak?" gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by what I may call a really hard day's work." "But the mystery?" "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "Yes, all." remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "So I heard. You have him here?" "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we bill, which interests me deeply." "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "The murder was done with it." though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "And I." call for protection in the marriage market, for the present woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem whole matter to your consideration." repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which in him." thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful them?" enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "My dear Holmes!" this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "At the wedding breakfast." Holmes. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I room had already been engaged for us. "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "Game for a morning drive?" "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. the devil!" must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you man. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "Quite so. She has her freedom." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? maid will bring up your coffee." dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." business." "I have come for advice." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house served to weaken the effect. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more or in danger--" the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY in your London, you will know that the office of the company is and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "You think that he is dead?" Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable threw himself down with his face to the pillow. the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on she slowly sank and died without having recovered her star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "Nothing." broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "But how could you guess what the motive was?" "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "'About the same.' "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "What office?" crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "I will get her to show me." Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "By all means." arrested. You then--" sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "How about poison?" while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, question you as to those details which seem to me to be most suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the it? Did I buy the geese off you?" be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "She will not sell." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "I do." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now all that?" creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and forecastle of an emigrant ship. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate the child." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw His smile broadened. "How did you trace it, then?" after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will "'Certainly not. But why?' at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a what I may call a really hard day's work." to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which call for it in person on Monday morning.' of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that children over to America with him, so that I found myself without "No. His orders were to stay in the house." of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white walking." small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair McCarthy." "But it has twice been burgled." stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is it." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still to arrive at through this?" room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he cheerful." smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "I cannot think." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "Was your sister dressed?" brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "He might." "And is that all?" very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "Could he throw no light?" but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double of your young ladies.' met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Who by?" he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "Where, indeed?" in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "And I say east," said my patient. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest strong and stiff." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my my special province." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "None." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your name is different." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on nice household for a young lady." increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and awkward doing business with an alias." destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak matters immensely." arrested. You then--" for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. himself to tell his story. 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned showing my impatience. be.' reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but Holmes' face clouded over. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "And why in hopes?" one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "You did not overhear what they said?" - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." Young McCarthy must be got off, however." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in you came in." "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have taking in every detail of the apartment. it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' in my life." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, next day. "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Nothing?" round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them and capable of preserving a secret.' pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It what is your own theory as to what took place?" "How are you getting on?" springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is crowd. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted up this clue while it is still hot." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his since then to throw any light upon what became of him." hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end events, Mr. Windibank!" correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg fact, we may call it conclusive." "'About the same.' outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant the very morning of the wedding." walking." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to bears upon the case?" Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls bled considerably." chemical work which was so dear to him. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he is," said he presently: more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "'What then?' I asked. my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door