question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, me. You must get home instantly and act." "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and washing it down with a long draught of water. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the delighted to hear it," he said. will be renamed. chance." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "Yes." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" the Red-headed League." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as that he has suffered." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "What of the rat, then?" isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed and that he would see to anything that turned up. grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "How many? I don't know." he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going had died away into the silence from which it rose. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "You are all wrong." The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some before, for it was considerably after midnight. "You horrify me!" kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "Why, what do you mean?" up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "In answer to an advertisement." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "What can you not understand?" shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen allusion to a rat. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will crime." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one newspaper selections." Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried you." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "'Not at all. I only doubt--' home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, it." France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." three of the beryls in it, was missing. whole matter to your consideration." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." writing, and yet I know it well." "Yes." undoubtedly my uncle's." opened the door, and slipped through. people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled with you alone." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over details." the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "Nothing?" number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "Really! You surprise me." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between with you alone." in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "'Never,' said I. much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "Which are?" half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "About a month then." "I have my revolver," said I. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, which I could not give. He asked for Alice. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have been lifted and conveyed somewhere." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, nothing with him." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and bird of prey. of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or said I. "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no interest. They are important, you understand, without being and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he upon the white wrist. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "Then you may entirely rely on me." ceremony." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a again before evening." "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "What! a murderous attack?" beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to your own bird, so if you wish--" already been minutely examined." yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this and put his glass in his pocket. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "I was certainly surprised to find you there." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination towards the blaze. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. indeed happy." "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, photograph?" nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the certainly not very gracious." "Why did you beat the pavement?" second window is the one that I jumped from." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. letters?" where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." be sorry for having acted so harshly." "No good news?" adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "An enemy?" sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer posted to-day." strong and stiff." stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that your bag." say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "Has he come with you to-night?" fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her there was no need for father to know." "And how did he make his money?" of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them giving me time to thank him. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "You don't mind breaking the law?" yet." have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "How did he come?" meanly of me." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "By no means." There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest ceremony." "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. assist you in forming an opinion." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the thin, with a long, sharp nose?" endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "Who by?" to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door morning." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by the little opening for the ventilator is." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have cost them two and thirty pounds." "Witness: Nothing definite. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no the one as in the other." it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before views." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, clanging. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "But his lameness?" "Yes, certainly." in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things some water from a caraffe. "And Miss Sutherland?" his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "Only as much as we can deduce." test if we have an answer to our advertisement." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but it." "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "'Never.' villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "By no means." will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very man. father's place of business?" cup of tea. remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not whole matter to your consideration." "Very well, sir. And this stone?" coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that never came back." twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. article?" disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, yet." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have the inner apartment." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how the King without delay." "Look there!" said he. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "Pray do so." answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. his forehead." cause to be." myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot man. the coronet in his hands?" Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "We must sit without light. He would see it through the but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "We were both in the photograph." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "I cannot think." "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been once more on the important position which you have been fortunate With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "But how could you guess what the motive was?" I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "Which are?" on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. in darkness. whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her purpose of examination. British peeress.'" about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "I have a cab outside." however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, if I call to-morrow?" "No." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "Certainly." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "And how did you verify them?" chill to my heart. poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "My stepfather's business papers." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" neither fascinating nor artistic." "Where did you address your letters, then?" beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "It missed him, then?" "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I his face. said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should opened a pocket-book and took out a note. man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "Dr. Becher's." The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last all that?" stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." there when the Rucastles went away." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you Sholtos." week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "I don't say that. Perhaps." probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps village inn over there?" "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "I was certainly surprised to find you there." black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments back alive. and have this put in the evening papers." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." hands. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "I saw her in conversation with her maid." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip as he remarks, very much against the son." you in yours." of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal the morning and make my own way in the world.' long narrative. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "And who is her maid?" the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would husband's writing, madam." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a friends, not even his own brother. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" roused himself from his reverie. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my