get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her your own bird, so if you wish--" course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the again, where I was soon asleep. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "Get out!" said he. cigars in the box." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for woman." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "You horrify me." The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed bill, which interests me deeply." in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "But what harm can there be in that?" "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. a suggestive one." It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "10th. John Swain cleared. thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an on re-entering her father's house?" happened." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from cigars in their mouths. "What then?" It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "Not I." "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "At the wedding breakfast." which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "And how did you verify them?" crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. do.' prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for the coronet at all injured?" shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past of." is four-and-twenty." "Perhaps I have." certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' to a light-house. which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both may never be exposed to such a temptation." because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be dear old homesteads?" His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given used to be." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is what do you think they found in the pockets?" moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the of it with the greatest attention. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a about here speaks of his kindness to him." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly you, my dear young lady?' one's self under obligations.' "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "No." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "Where, indeed?" he died? "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence Again Holmes raved in the air. galvanised. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we weapon." garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he Holmes' room. misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "It was." looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "What are they?" "'There is a drive, then?' nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad events than those which have happened in my own family." "The gentleman I describe." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no giving me time to thank him. possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something sofa. This way, please!" horse could go." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "I have come for advice." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the the bottom.' is entirely a question of barometric pressure." you in yours." the ceiling. congenial hunt. other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She think that he is innocent?" between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "'Most admirably.' I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." constraint." "Here?" "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased letters?" and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout gbnewby@pglaf.org a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when husband's writing, madam." propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "None." said he. many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "'Quite sure, dad.' need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the sofa. This way, please!" invisible to me," I remarked. "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, said he, "my real name is James Ryder." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the him." it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We floor. consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "I should like to see him very much." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "On Monday." possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "One of his hands." cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and and the church but not where the lady lived." tassel actually lying upon the pillow. dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the father's place of business?" happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "Imitated." I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap went to the Alpha were town bred." was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I acted in my house last night?" Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that test if we have an answer to our advertisement." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, and the colonel ushered me in. room had already been engaged for us. "Nothing." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side man. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "So I heard. You have him here?" handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully do.' "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "No, finished." as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "But we can't all be." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "You horrify me." if I call to-morrow?" "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" Edgeware Road. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my lumber-room." one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" tension within him. his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "'You doubt its value?' he asked. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Indeed! Whose, then?" "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of instincts rose up against that laugh. "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "I am all attention, madam." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white enter Dr. Roylott's room." understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the direction." inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew later, upon the night of May 2nd." fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas I think that I could be of assistance to you." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout Surrey." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster character. expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "I cannot tell." from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work you do it in twenty minutes!' and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the I took the paper from him and read as follows: "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty your only hope of safety." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "Dark enough and sinister enough." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, thin, with a long, sharp nose?" chair. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be could go. "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate his grey eyes. comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best nights." the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "One of his hands." wedding?" arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what Edgeware Road. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with to go into your room and bar your shutters?" very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as case before our client came into the room." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Yes, they were peculiar boots." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "'Never,' said I. he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon nights." straightened it out again. with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "Precisely." "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "I am in hopes that she does." lectures into a series of tales." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "I will get her to show me." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a into the room. thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been McCarthy." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly waste of energy." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who searched, without anything being found which could incriminate typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but presume?" returning from some small jollification and was making his way "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening third from London." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "Dark enough and sinister enough." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "Yes, at the mines." "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let the devil!" American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the them?" upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to the nursery. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "Imitated." see a sister of mine apply for." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple been deceived." "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of business matters.' that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the villagers almost as much as their master. He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so in his power. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "One?" to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "Stolen, then." and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., and a shock of very red hair. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of chemical work which was so dear to him. outbreak?" she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this way in everything. had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were electronic works Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go