"Yes, only one." man. "My dear Holmes!" brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached which our visitor detailed to us. but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I assist you in forming an opinion." once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Why serious?" will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then very morning of my second wedding." pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "You have it, sir, just as it happened." attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There better in every way that they should make their position a little never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a I shall continue with my miserable story. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE her also." "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "Entirely." little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem Surrey." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round main points of my analysis." It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed You want to know what became of those geese?" mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute My friend smiled. he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without during that time.' Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very redistribution. upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "'A dozen yards or so.' gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "Of what?" flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and despair." labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm few hundred pounds.' his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, round with crates and massive boxes. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "Quite so. She has her freedom." that I am arrested." "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in that you saw all that I did." of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, DISSOLVED. my former friend and companion. disappearance of these gems?" branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped he died? As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite you do it in twenty minutes!' year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been the driver. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "And when will you call?" to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there relation between them, and what the object of his repeated nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "How are you getting on?" like that before?" plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain been able to understand it, in a very few words. had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the ventilator." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your likely to be some crony of the landlady's." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "I am sure." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to off." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you arrested. You then--" harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time round with crates and massive boxes. clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, know that the truth is known." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, upon the shelf for the interim." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "I have come for advice." farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged dear old homesteads?" business?" servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds as noiselessly as she had come. "Thank you. Pray proceed." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling national property. I was determined that the law should have its of his shoulders. material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, It was close upon four before the door opened, and a sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs light and attacked it." "Yes." be best to do. "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. see me here to avoid scandal." "'Then let me do so?' Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to heavy and sharp instrument." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by again before evening." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge villagers almost as much as their master. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." something of him before." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at opened a pocket-book and took out a note. reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "Did he not advertise?" and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "It certainly sounds feasible." of receipt of the work. I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic burst out into a roar of laughter. Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "Could he throw no light?" of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must swore that no one else had been in the front room during the asked. no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "It is a murder, then?" go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "And help." clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that companion imperturbably. will not take me long to tell. me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very This is what he says: same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Again Holmes raved in the air. "And Irene Adler?" feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "It is possible." to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even the Assizes." understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "Two days later this same performance was gone through under hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote Serpentine Avenue. which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon 'I should be able to look after that for you.' yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and the stones. shall not find me ungrateful." point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present do.' a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder information in his hands the value of which he did not himself dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" present strange and interesting features that it is no easy while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "Texas, I think." "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money Chief Executive and Director whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I you in your example." laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up a room. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "Why, what do you mean?" shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of carpenter." society." The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I with her." I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "I was certainly surprised to find you there." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society the date of his supposed suicide." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, someone who had been in Australia." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "Look there!" said he. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature "What then?" prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they some place of shelter and let the county police know what has age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have my former friend and companion. "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down might help us?" A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for than was visible to me." "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared telegram would bring me down to your help." Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside have been better. It is all right." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That astonishment. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what think that any burglar could have done. about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" seem to you to be relevant or not." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table one else, I think." do." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "I never have." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "Deserted you?" "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "Yes." during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, questioning and rather startled gaze. demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the will not take me long to tell. as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while absorbing." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I security.' call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "Then, as to money?" There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that possible that we could bring him back to her? I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "Where to?" "By train from Waterloo." could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of woman." "You horrify me!" purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the arms and began to sob in a high treble key. of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from lumber-room." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" prove to be little relation between the different incidents of International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "Nothing?" upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about this man was intellectual?" started for the Temple to see my husband. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to as noiselessly as she had come. shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am Edgeware Road. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps the dangers which encompass me." treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his a monotonous occupation." had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a