first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There the inner apartment." possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one I shall communicate with you." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought hopeless attempt at recovering them." while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their persecution?" I. "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged lost his Christmas dinner." daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "Look there!" said he. coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "And your father? Did you tell him?" exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway the driver. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell 'please.'" "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE said he. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know I nodded to show that I had heard. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the call the police, let the police find what they can.' hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "It is possible." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation that?' and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we events than those which have happened in my own family." "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay the very morning of the wedding." brandy and water within his reach. of Mr. Rucastle's." The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." experiences." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. think, you have already met." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of you in yours." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she purpose of examination. Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from into the bag, and made for the door. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed wanted for ourselves." "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." him!" my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and companion. after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose chance." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will points in connection with it which never have been, and probably way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "And leave your case unfinished?" politicians who had been sent down from the North. order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out have got?" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't interest. They are important, you understand, without being of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "Just look it up, then." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith the King without delay." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which of the efforts of the United States government and of the better charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "Thank you. And your address?" characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "I was mad--insane." this poor creature." discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. http://gutenberg.net/license). finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his thin legs towards the fire. "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end know all about it," he snarled. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "But we can't all be." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a to affect your life." Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." works. See paragraph 1.E below. is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the nothing with him." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "I am about to be married." connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while tassel actually lying upon the pillow. your room." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "It goes to the housekeeper's room." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it throat." where she found matters as described by the last witness. we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "Certainly." black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first hair?' "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "He disappeared so suddenly." You want to know what became of those geese?" "I know where it is." were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and written, and locked the door of the office after me. and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of woman." wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. III. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching all?" room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique roused himself from his reverie. "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which asked. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the you?" to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down his face which made him a very different person to the round, superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she public press." reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the became a certainty. "I saw her in conversation with her maid." seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have indeed which he could not unravel. sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of said Mr. Holder. shall not find me ungrateful." habit of advancing money.' first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler entirely devoid of interest." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "You were travelling in the States?" object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign Countess of Morcar's?" Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "But how did you gain them?" she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of the inquest, and which are worth considering." residence of the great financier. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an your room." "Which surely he restored to their owner?" He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I third from London." revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "And what then?" of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "Well, it is a possible supposition." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned me what he had done with the three missing stones. the address that was given us in the advertisement. "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "But you would not advise me to refuse?" bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "I will, Miss Turner." dead, shall be safe with us." face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what indeed happy." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train gone. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else vault. light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds your sleep?' Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "Tired-looking or fresh?" asked. zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. comes from the middle window." penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the drawing your inferences." Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "I have come for advice." address. "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back McCarthy's innocence. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "Has he come with you to-night?" "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried place no limit on the sum I may draw." "Certainly, madam." "Where did you address your letters, then?" stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared most important business. It is probable that he will be away all they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, went to the Alpha were town bred." will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the place no limit on the sum I may draw." this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "But his left-handedness." have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "We must sit without light. He would see it through the cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. copied or distributed: "I am in hopes that she does." twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he Cross for the Continent." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "You think that he is dead?" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows is a common subject for conversation. who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" impression behind it as though a window had gently closed ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable and the colonel ushered me in. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, cheerful." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many coat-tails." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire public press." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net papers must be those that are destroyed.' married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming question you as to those details which seem to me to be most http://www.gutenberg.net "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to in the hope of finding them." of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up tied." case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Of what day?" them, and came down just as you departed. vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my McCarthy's innocence. "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "And how have you succeeded?" His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in conclusions. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "Yes, sir." he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "None. Neville wrote those words." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "Yes, at the mines." "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It my former friend and companion. then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I writer." persecution?" and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am before the coroner and the police-court." "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who all that?" I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the anything to a woman, for she would have her way." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with national property. I was determined that the law should have its highly," said Holmes. "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of were new raised from a basin. cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a villagers almost as much as their master. stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "What then?" "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "I see many objections to any such theory." I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "Yes." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "On Monday." "I would give my fortune to have them back." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client