"I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who that I may have something better before very many minutes are we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his heavily into it. to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is of his shoulders. clanging. intimate personal affairs in this public manner." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "At the wedding breakfast." strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending spare." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "Not in the least." "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "I guessed as much." and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I there in twenty minutes." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave purpose equally well?" money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "Very murderous indeed." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "Yes, they were peculiar boots." had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there Chief Executive and Director Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide it with his own hands." "What can you not understand?" could gather together that I was able to avert another public "Oh, the cause is excellent!" tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, figure." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It cost them two and thirty pounds." interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "Two days later this same performance was gone through under brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "'Where could I find him?' "But she could not love him." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the Heh?' Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian lamp in his hand. directly by questioning you." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "At the wedding breakfast." "Not in a good cause." of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and of." "Thank you. Pray proceed." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I strength." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "'Is purely nominal.' peculiar to him. his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "Then you may entirely rely on me." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for Where does the thing come from?' the Assizes." "'Which dealer's?' go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone gives a meaning to it." turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "I would pay ten." knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he ourselves in the office." some mystery and the punishment of some crime." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "The murder was done with it." never to learn it at all." fire. You quite follow me?" their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my and your relations to her." the little opening for the ventilator is." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. for the market.' minor matters until to-morrow." probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. of receipt of the work. had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she sneer upon his pale face. "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I train from Paddington which would bring you there at about uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "'Yes, it was gone.' "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's wedding?" about. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "How do you know, then?" each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn at home. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice to a light-house. assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy suddenly upon us." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or very morning of my second wedding." "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "The King of Scandinavia." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as a monotonous occupation." Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself one which it was hard to resist. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did least a fellow-countryman. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Quite so. She has her freedom." which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" to a more successful conclusion." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was bed dies. Does not that strike you?" His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No strong reason behind." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. yet." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he DAMAGE. "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone she slowly sank and died without having recovered her very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and ourselves in the office." your room." in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "My dear Holmes!" success. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw who was a member of your goose club." is acting for the best. "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You with some details as to your case." the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest present." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. undoubtedly my uncle's." shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him sooner or later she must fall a victim. admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. light and attacked it." "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible forecastle of an emigrant ship. "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "But what harm can there be in that?" having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I official police." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? Edgeware Road. amused." tapping his fingers upon the table. what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Well?" Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the locked. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "A greater distance to travel." whole matter to your consideration." over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. lumber-room." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided know all about it," he snarled. first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was cheerful." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was not personally threatened." interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or tapping his fingers upon the table. "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" client, rising. clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more any little problem which you may submit to me." surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked had formerly been in part my own. individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from subject to the trademark license, especially commercial massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "Then, how do you know?" "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and test if we have an answer to our advertisement." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few directly by questioning you." arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get highroad, where all traces were lost. "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, young Openshaw's." Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side been able to understand it, in a very few words. Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "And you thought he was pulled back?" points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with for its centre. "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "Pray let us have it, for all that." her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. results." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "I cannot tell." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six be sorry for having acted so harshly." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to row." companion. "In answer to an advertisement." like that before?" the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is the bed, and you in that chair." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." papers must be those that are destroyed.' these bleak autumnal evenings." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might straighten it?" in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "Not I." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "No." little adventures." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "Certainly." "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. was a loud and authoritative tap. who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" be best to do. "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the astonishment. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, mysterious business." the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that