untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "It is a murder, then?" is acting for the best. me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "Very murderous indeed." She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." skylight. as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss the tragedy. trifles." and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur way in everything. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "At half-wages, in fact." that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then chambers. I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Nothing." just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive the child." My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, long narrative. the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." the salesman. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A key of the affair now." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital tear off another piece?' "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, ways of our fellow-men." said he. is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "In which, sir?" sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "And you thought he was pulled back?" deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "That also I could fathom." "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who easy-going way." dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "Very much so." found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed against a man in the prime of life?" to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no introspective fashion. "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several was it brought him the coronet? "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." little trying to do so much typewriting?" the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost yet." "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "And your father? Did you tell him?" The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in he. Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I past. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "Proceed, then." "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "'I am sure if I had known--' "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "'Yes, sir.' near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." possible that we could bring him back to her? "Not I." house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "It goes to the housekeeper's room." makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in formed some opinion?" is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on train.' Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "But it has twice been burgled." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly of your young ladies.' squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I throat." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I said he. "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, you understand?" description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that photograph?" keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the never will be, entirely cleared up. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his future lives." course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was The note was undated, and without either signature or address. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when was it brought him the coronet? predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from pierced for earrings?" was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do key turn in the lock." "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New looking up at the numbers of the houses." "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "How did you trace it, then?" were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "What is it, then--a fire?" strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There once more to my work. "Precisely." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe man. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what shoulder. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us heavy and sharp instrument." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with Holmes rather sternly. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may Chief Executive and Director branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child it were putty." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a husband's writing, madam." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "And how did you find out?" wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to occupations.' charged with?" grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached once more to my work. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." mystery." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Quite so." "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking obstinate." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge a room. which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, yet." insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; tear off another piece?' Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, orange pips. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "No." which are rolled in Rotterdam." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "Your sister is dead, then?" attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Yes." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "At half-wages, in fact." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some strong reason behind." "At half-wages, in fact." that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such new acquaintance to Baker Street. Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "'And what salary do you ask?' little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "Well, some hundreds of times." and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I think that any burglar could have done. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of help us in this matter." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to wedding?" "I fear not." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "Very much so." "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few hurried away. seen the man in the road." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he wife's character?" days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker Leave Paddington by the 11:15." right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "But you would not advise me to refuse?" no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in other, as fresh and trim as possible. and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "What then?" smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange your most interesting statement." have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true putting in the horse. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are carried out of court." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Very truly yours, crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" key turn in the lock." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love your room." the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in skylight. interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "Her father is very rich?" opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "'I am sure that I do not know.' "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "How many? I don't know." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, Lestrade of Scotland Yard." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far Arthur Conan Doyle which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "Her father is very rich?" pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little and the colonel ushered me in. "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in particular state visit http://pglaf.org to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be lamp. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "What, then?" A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and impression behind it as though a window had gently closed returned to France?" empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason nice household for a young lady." smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country swore that no one else had been in the front room during the them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I wedding?" "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "And how have you succeeded?" conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well who was a member of your goose club." and prosperity to your house. Good-night." never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send charge against him will break down." the coronet in his hand?" my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," see me here to avoid scandal." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. to where he stood hid behind the curtain. little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." three fields round his house, and there he would take his Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be cheerful." "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on http://gutenberg.net/license). "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. have got?" never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and for its centre. Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read gives a meaning to it." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that of them has the shutters up.' over here." varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever taking in every detail of the apartment. "'About the same.' gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "Precisely so. But how--" possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "It came here." "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and assist you in forming an opinion." "She told me to ask you." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see approach us with offers to donate. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." main points of my analysis." "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin one's self under obligations.' process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "VIOLET HUNTER." marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography light and attacked it." Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "I cannot imagine." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "Witness: It was. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his was feeling which was the fattest.' bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round knowledge of the world." was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "Then what has happened to him?" permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his business came to an end." brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution him nearly every evening." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." British peeress.'" returning from some small jollification and was making his way weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "'Stolen!' he cried. "You have carte blanche." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "I say it is." of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the burst into a hearty fit of laughter. thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four ago." as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's call for protection in the marriage market, for the present which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' gone. "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads newspaper selections." chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down,