by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly is now desirous of getting those letters back." alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress shoulder. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "From his hat?" several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've national property. I was determined that the law should have its "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he hard-headed British jury." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been the matter." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles papers diligently of late, have you not?" remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "Do you go out much in society?" and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa experiences." adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "We have tried and failed." He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able this man was intellectual?" That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "Ha! you find it so?" through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "At the wedding breakfast." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will ceremony." battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see followed. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but for and were ordered to this address. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an important." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "How often?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common it." to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? point in the dark hollow of his hand. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "Dark enough and sinister enough." "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the south-west, I see." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to soul! here is her carriage at the door." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "It came here." "Of what day?" is so. I know all about McCarthy." "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," Project Gutenberg-tm works. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "None." Pool. unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I to affect your life." correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "That is possible." "I was sure that I might rely on you." was keenly on my guard against him. used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself hurried by. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "The murder was done with it." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was questionable one." questioning and rather startled gaze. season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from giving me time to thank him. the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of three fields round his house, and there he would take his Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in key turn in the lock." as this. Pray let me have the details." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside more terrible than the truth. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Clair, of Lee." in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible there in twenty minutes." of your young ladies.' "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE in the port of London." "And sit in the dark?" when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her business." "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "'You cannot say what it was?' inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "But how?" "And I." copied or distributed: very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." fattened it expressly for you.' "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "It was a confession," I ejaculated. Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "'Where could I find him?' know all about it," he snarled. thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended desk. the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission Miss Holder?" ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of quite distinctive." "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "It came here." she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then Arthur Conan Doyle "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which the iron safe, which he closed upon it. had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I comes from the middle window." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "I saw her in conversation with her maid." called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank six. Come in!" this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond and glanced through. bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." started for the Temple to see my husband. observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. to affect your life." to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "What of the rat, then?" had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK ourselves in the office." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you and looked back. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, companion. Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the see me here to avoid scandal." there in twenty minutes." "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his said I. "Yes." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I that was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "Certainly." suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "I answered that I had not. Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case as he remarks, very much against the son." "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm had no one to advise her at such a crisis." "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I the address that was given us in the advertisement. which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips have got?" wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "You did not overhear what they said?" 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "I don't say that. Perhaps." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "'Which dealer's?' grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let read it out to me." confronted him. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." over here." "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." became a certainty. and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. Munro.' an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "When did she vanish, then?" despair." this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight past. sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "Frequently." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do name is different." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be the Assizes." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "'Yes, I promise.' the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through nights." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the Doctor, of the paper and the date." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "That is it on the dressing-table." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the some terrible trap for her." and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "I know where it is." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "'I am sure if I had known--' voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed burst into a hearty fit of laughter. The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and ago." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "'Yes.' job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' the station." "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any his fortune, and I went back to pa. works. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "In answer to an advertisement." was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered his forehead."