man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are head. So long, then!" there." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" could not have written that. It is the German who is so My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a gone. surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. during that time.' until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black situation." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and instincts rose up against that laugh. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to suspect him." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," and all of them with the keenest interest. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "Oh, the cause is excellent!" stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America of them has the shutters up.' "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given the date of his supposed suicide." him to be an active member of the medical profession." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very to his chemical studies. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the man. I know him from the photograph." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. together. would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "None." "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss or other trace. But how on earth--" He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. good for you to do.' that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though and effective." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." carriage. It was a chestnut." pierced for earrings?" "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" constraint." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed seem to you to be relevant or not." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "No, I am descending." done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a within hail.' supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here again on its way. appeal." "And your mother is alive?" "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a closing the door. The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "And how in the world did you find them?" adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that hopeless attempt at recovering them." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "I am armed." tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; returning from some small jollification and was making his way fire. You quite follow me?" question you as to those details which seem to me to be most but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "What, then?" way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed instituted." ill-usage at the hands of fortune. telegram would bring me down to your help." voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "And your mother is alive?" from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to past. fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The redistribution. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means as the one I chose?' great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up singular points about the case. What did the police think of the address. latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take you for a few hours?" accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and for securing the situation." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a fear." a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was all-comprehensive glances. hands. with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and for the market.' You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." plantation.' wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "The decline of his fortunes, then?" nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "Yes, only one." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "Dr. Becher's." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would populous neighbourhood." there was no need for father to know." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. very old mansion. "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window to have that photograph." the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "An enemy?" "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, invisible to me," I remarked. not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. and that he would see to anything that turned up. this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and bears upon the case?" stepfather?" one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining o'clock is it?" he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the unprecedented a position." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair jewels which you have stolen?' It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "No more words. Get out!" "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. again on its way. "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "And now?" I asked. elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to in. I was concerned in it." could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "And on what day did he meet his death?" "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that the armchair which I pushed forward for him. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "What can it mean?" I gasped. "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "Is he quiet?" As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "The decline of his fortunes, then?" for its centre. is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further a little more before I quite committed myself. part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of fear." of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the Chief Executive and Director criminal. We have already had experience of such." upon the sideboard." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the union?" liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "But the mystery?" not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at constraint." however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the he bowed and left the room without another word. hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips into the bag, and made for the door. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I into her hand at the door and which lured her within their a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "What office?" of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would For additional contact information: "My dear Holmes!" floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "She walked into the breakfast-room." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when carpenter." strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the shall use the carriage to-night." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent Pope's Court. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." of a light. I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned with the outside air!" sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who you." "Yes, from Horsham." good-night and bustled off upon her way. in your London, you will know that the office of the company is square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. husband's writing, madam." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that have accepted such a situation. It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If a suggestive one." 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "But his left-handedness." "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as evidence," I remarked. observed. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in at my own good fortune. there in twenty minutes." taking in every detail of the apartment. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the strong and stiff." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Of Friday, June 19th." Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the with frightened eyes at his accuser. touch that coronet?' my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the pity, because in other respects you would really have done very glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Was she in good spirits?" "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I pity, because in other respects you would really have done very and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I go--none." body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "But of what society?" Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "You are hungry," I remarked. open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "And I say east," said my patient. departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable here." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much question," said Holmes, smiling. and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At walking." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and less than 26s. 4d. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and the King without delay." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light brain must have something in it." our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. as he remarks, very much against the son." "'Then let me do so?' "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." would apply.' the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "So I have heard." silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady wedding?" she has been waylaid. There has been no result." which should have the effect of calling the attention of the considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ goes." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold sneer upon his pale face. the stones. young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong present." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the respectable self." his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it."