flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "I am sure." smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange me upon any point which I do not make clear." at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "And why in hopes?" foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We shadow pass over his face as I spoke. character. "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "There are none." glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "It missed him, then?" "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see tell them apart.' green of the new foliage. both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to to-night?' Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said swore that no one else had been in the front room during the perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and returned to France?" relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, locked." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "Tired-looking or fresh?" and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are that he has suffered." read over the extraordinary announcement. "How on earth--" other lovers by making love himself." bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but means taking possession of that which another person has a prior The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to papers on the sundial.'" large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the down from London to inquire more deeply into it." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, think that any burglar could have done. "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "No more words. Get out!" "Look there!" said he. "What! a murderous attack?" Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "No, but the enclosure is." already referred to. sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in papers." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in fait accompli?" depend upon my doing so.' "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I skylight. "Yes, only one." am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one are, and they are waiting for us." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "Yes." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You down. law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "But the mystery?" desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway present." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham she might be summoned. "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. me where it went to?" inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I suggested at once that there must be a communication between the Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, cost them two and thirty pounds." hardly wander." collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such flock.' misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such call for protection in the marriage market, for the present present." "My Mary? Impossible!" villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the way: silent! Oh, he will be silent!' we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be answered with a sidelong glance. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing late." "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H cigars in their mouths. cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "BALLARAT." I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "'And what salary do you ask?' "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "Where, indeed?" electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "Nearly eleven." The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "I have solved it." brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a during the last few years, and there are many noble families to valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "You saw the ventilator, too?" leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "Then I can wait in the next room." face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as way in everything. wall." "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in particular state visit http://pglaf.org seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "That is unusual in a young girl." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been I was concerned in it." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "It surprised me." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "'I have already given you my word.' photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Of Friday, June 19th." shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right status with the IRS. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again paper in the air. my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "I don't believe it." Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided little adventures." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. and glanced through. "But how will you look?" you in your example." that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic there is a decided draught." depend upon my doing so.' "'Yes, I promise.' who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. knowledge of the world." and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said weary and pale-looking. had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Frequently." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "I would pay ten." new acquaintance to Baker Street. should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a it. little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts his forehead." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling where we are going." company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet thin, with a long, sharp nose?" all-comprehensive glances. before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." yards of it?' course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, be. benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "How many? I don't know." my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our which I could not give. He asked for Alice. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, should be so warm over such a trifle." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again "Ha! you find it so?" "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, upon the shelf for the interim." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There better in every way that they should make their position a little foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of the devil!" them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in joking. manager. ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY very old mansion. "But the mystery?" "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. happened." "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "No, I am descending." here." noise which awoke you from your sleep?" "My Mary? Impossible!" breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. jewels which you have stolen?' or other trace. But how on earth--" "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "Dark enough and sinister enough." Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "None. Neville wrote those words." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "'I shall certainly be there.' "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "Nothing." married her." pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two miles off. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us was used.' He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward your billet.' "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "Ample." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" drawing your inferences." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" call you and give you the chance." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and the salesman. brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the Heh?' framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "Did you become engaged then?" "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the photograph?" 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "And it is--" laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." whether it answered to the description of any of their I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who be there in time for your coming." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" gone. thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to seven miles from Eyford Station.' been deceived." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best Pool. exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and presume?" "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I Leadenhall Street--and--" then?" was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I digesting their breakfasts at home." in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings once more. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of this remarkable episode. the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' if only as a check to my own memory." written. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" individual and becomes the badge of a society." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary possible that we could bring him back to her? the house with me." brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge grasp, he hurried from the room. exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the his wife has ceased to love him." with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. in the port of London." when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "Pray continue your narrative." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that might help us?" Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less individual and becomes the badge of a society." "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." maid will bring up your coffee." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite my friend's incisive reasoning. trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and bed dies. Does not that strike you?" overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," which our visitor detailed to us. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Of what day?" Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "'Where to?' they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "It is his hat." money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "'What are you doing there?' he asked. One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "You are hungry," I remarked. "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: of the vacancies.' One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one."