"Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the and looked back. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Yes, but only for you and me." "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "It is half-past ten now." reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, dramatic, in fact." "We must have a cab." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "How many? I don't know." "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and husband's writing, madam." turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in hurried away. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "'Entirely.' Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man to have that photograph." street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of point in the dark hollow of his hand. "And what then?" said I. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. light and attacked it." There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "Imitated." of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit what I may call a really hard day's work." starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do said I. whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, up this clue while it is still hot." "Then what has happened to him?" that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the to have been novel and of interest." your sleep?' fact, we may call it conclusive." parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced an introduction to him?" shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "Then I can wait in the next room." know what is wrong with it.' absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you to where he stood hid behind the curtain. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. horse could go." however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in His smile broadened. late." "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! strength in the others." about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "VIOLET HUNTER." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we absorbing." seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural is four-and-twenty." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free province." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out chamber." cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk relation between them, and what the object of his repeated any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and formed some opinion?" hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future works. See paragraph 1.E below. "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' business?" a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a his eyes and forehead. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the fashion which was peculiar to him. thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "You are certainly joking, Holmes." when you have done it." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it shall use the carriage to-night." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "How do you know, then?" the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more call for it in person on Monday morning.' and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain and that he would see to anything that turned up. me. You must get home instantly and act." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin do.' said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "Not in the least." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated troubles have been weighing upon his mind. Miss Holder?" keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "My opinion is in no way altered." that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "I shall most certainly do so." them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land From what you have told me I think that it is possible that threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "The vanishing of the lady." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' John Swain, of St. Augustine. my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor maiden herself was most instructive." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "But she will refuse." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "At the wedding breakfast." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." unclasping of his long thin hands. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few had formerly been in part my own. There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution the window, rose as we entered. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is key of the affair now." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did hair?' eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, way in." few hundred pounds.' Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at down. "I cannot tell." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "'Very good.' Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "Not particularly." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place back alive. the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "Not I." served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "And I say east," said my patient. "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with crackling voice. nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "Nothing?" "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small I. upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "Yes, from Horsham." sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "Absolutely?" business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "And leave your case unfinished?" and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he depend upon my doing so.' "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "No." This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your hand, madam?" "My own seal." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular 'I should be able to look after that for you.' in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "No bad?" fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than views." writer." cheerful." through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out looking up at the numbers of the houses." no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "'It is locked up,' I answered. step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small o'clock is it?" a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope and looked back. details should find their way into the papers. Inspector master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I not interfere, come what may. You understand?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that furiously. outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wedding?" top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of feature." very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. gigantic client. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Witness: Nothing definite. with her." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when Literary Archive Foundation gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." salesman. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "Where, indeed?" "Nothing?" happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "But I have heard all that you have heard." down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will foresight and the moral retrogression?" this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "ARAT," I read. it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the washing it down with a long draught of water. the date of his supposed suicide." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and the very letters. But what is this written above them?' Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you discontent upon his features. "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary do you make of it all?" The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, particular state visit http://pglaf.org "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if the roots. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now bled considerably." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the legal crime." "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east lost his Christmas dinner." little trying to do so much typewriting?" But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished neither fascinating nor artistic." in darkness. England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the very old mansion. would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, again." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "Stolen." of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing place no limit on the sum I may draw." clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as is acting for the best. could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt more solid." him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not best detective that ever lived. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. case before our client came into the room."