where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his as noiselessly as she had come. remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a "May I see it?" "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "Yes, he did." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "My photograph." Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "So I have heard." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who gives a meaning to it." "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the may never be exposed to such a temptation." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "And is that all?" insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just down in his armchair and closing his eyes. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Where, then?" abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out pity, because in other respects you would really have done very and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel Pope's Court. "I cannot imagine." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "The best possible." was a loud and authoritative tap. could not have written that. It is the German who is so silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought were new raised from a basin. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had unclasping of his long thin hands. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "It is true that I have been generally successful." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was strength." crime. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at with frightened eyes at his accuser. statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' easy-going way." conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the train from Paddington which would bring you there at about impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's Holmes' face clouded over. "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "And why in hopes?" suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside client, rising. backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." away into the river." congenial hunt. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "Well?" vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that families. Now for the facts. "I have solved it." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. against a man in the prime of life?" for securing the situation." "'Yes, it was gone.' they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and retorted upon me, and I on you." Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it the driver. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "That is possible." what these perils are?" therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. trying to your nerves." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "Very murderous indeed." world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies evidence," I remarked. his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, "Ah, but I was recommended to you." slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the other lovers by making love himself." "'Never,' said I. it. from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "I am sure." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose works. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper at my remark. in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, rooms." Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and tail." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no horse could go." "You know me, then?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, himself. if only as a check to my own memory." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "Upon what point?" age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very over with notes and figures. he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the the best of training." "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first more solid." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but test if we have an answer to our advertisement." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in it means?" Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the confronted him. "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "'What then?' I asked. the armchair which I pushed forward for him. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a his knees, staring into the fire. himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in to have been novel and of interest." it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "'Most admirably.' hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." green of the new foliage. she to prove their authenticity?" I nodded again. down. the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so anything to do with the matter?" character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a and looked back. advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of answered with a sidelong glance. remarked. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Quite so. She has her freedom." which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was him and tried to hold him back. and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, crime. "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some made his money." furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "How did you trace it, then?" I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you conduct the inquiry." this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' bedroom door." children over to America with him, so that I found myself without any more." "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first have established a very serious case against the son of the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon and all of them with the keenest interest. the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on shadow pass over his face as I spoke. meant it for the best. the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of returning from some small jollification and was making his way "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "Oh, the cause is excellent!" again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "Was there a secret marriage?" "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "You have a clue?" open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the round with crates and massive boxes. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I you for a few hours?" works. hurried away. the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that think, you have already met." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I that I can to serve you." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth your equipment. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "No, I had a dozen." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "How did you trace it, then?" "Yes, the wine-cellar." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ bare slabs of marble. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to out of this horrible affair." young Openshaw's." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the Cross for the Continent." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "He said too much." details." was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "Seven!" I answered. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's system of imprisonment?" have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "On the contrary, this is the right side." lamp in his hand. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless tassel actually lying upon the pillow. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "The knees of his trousers." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my useful material for showing traces. The double line a little the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "I should be immensely obliged to you." give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Where to?" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms our word." the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down papers on the sundial.'" whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the address. France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "Then I shall certainly come." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to fashion which was peculiar to him. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and nothing of it?" shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "And how did you find out?" He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very perplexity from it to my illustrious client. whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not your Highness to the police-station?"