"I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "Certainly, madam." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this within hail.' in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It sit on the left-hand side of the driver." Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the desk. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "And it is--" "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' read it out to me." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "It is very kind of you." "I have come for advice." years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. his knees, staring into the fire. cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "'Certainly,' I answered. borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I distance from the station, and there we found the young lady He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through friends, not even his own brother. saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I client, rising. shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "'Is purely nominal.' sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel do.' "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "How on earth--" "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. is acting for the best. "Precisely." these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an with the outside air!" little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked weigh very heavily upon my conscience." hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." me. wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while whether it answered to the description of any of their the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "When did she vanish, then?" Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you death." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. all that?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." said Mr. Holder. would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the rose-bushes. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal lamp. Chief Executive and Director coat-tails." murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Which surely he restored to their owner?" but preventing her from injuring another. "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the purpose equally well?" "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to that he will be back before evening." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to has little to do with my story." five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "Then what has happened to him?" Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg in this way: been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." asked. anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire a good hundred miles off by now." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." child?' railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "Do you go out much in society?" "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "No, finished." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single that there was nothing in it, after all." said he. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "Nothing." and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in distinguish the words: means taking possession of that which another person has a prior case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "Tired-looking or fresh?" object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign his cane at the bell-pull. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down rose-bushes. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have discontent upon his features. some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "Did you observe the colour?" course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you friends, not even his own brother. to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but with her." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. bearing upon the case." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, served to weaken the effect. list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "Stoke Moran?" said he. assist you in forming an opinion." have had none more fantastic than this." her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united woman who has had her own way to make in the world. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" The events in question occurred in the early days of my fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "We were both in the photograph." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social bell. Holmes whistled. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. upon a handsome competence. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman bearing upon the case." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in client, rising. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his stalked out of the room. Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A absolutely follow my advice in every respect." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and roused himself from his reverie. have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "Ha! you find it so?" "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave recall any case within my experience which looked at the first then?" business came to an end." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. new duties?' Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the breakfast and whispered something to her husband. presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement the stones. then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old to his chemical studies. "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "One of the highest in England." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had forbidden door. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down bled considerably." man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door outbreak?" The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you people don't know." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? may never be exposed to such a temptation." back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means you." me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "Will you bet, then?" sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, laugh and put his lips to my ear. "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, of it with the greatest attention. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: that?' "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that young Openshaw's." in him." "I say it is." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Has he come with you to-night?" after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "Did your wife hear all this?" visitors." over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than electronic works it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." seem to you to be relevant or not." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door guilty one." see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I think you a quite exceptional woman." it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." o'clock is it?" mysterious business." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "By train from Waterloo." about. gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon have not had my rubber." would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Yes." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain started for the Temple to see my husband. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, man. I know him from the photograph." hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "He said too much." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may husband's writing, madam." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I there were so many in the whole country as were brought together rose-bushes. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings official police." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," down from London to inquire more deeply into it." client, rising. But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my there!' "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." fat-encircled eyes. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to him to be an active member of the medical profession." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "Could he throw no light?" alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast the King without delay." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became your equipment. good for you to do.' allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, question you as to those details which seem to me to be most reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "No more words. Get out!" the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was new acquaintance to Baker Street. "No, distinctly professional." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little him nearly every evening." had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to geese which you supplied to the Alpha." he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "You will not go there first?" becomes even more simple." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that families. Now for the facts. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg because she had spent so short a time in this country that she think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more might help us?" started for the Temple to see my husband. gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the the so-precious time, but come!' headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We triumphant cloud from his cigarette. homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of as the one I chose?' you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "And did you observe any change in her then?" "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked you." and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "It surprised me." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a