"'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a Eyford at 11:15.' the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be meant." get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "By all means." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story the coronet in his hands?" said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "No, I had a dozen." if I call to-morrow?" "Imitated." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "Yes, he did." side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "The Cedars?" was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "One?" unkempt, staring out at me. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, upon the shelf for the interim." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "Yes." size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me to Leatherhead. in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "What! Had he lost his wife?" before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of sofa. This way, please!" In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, his cane at the bell-pull. lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "We must sit without light. He would see it through the I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might that the gas is not laid on in his house?" One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew public press." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the entirely lost his self-respect." may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the security.' aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed fire. You quite follow me?" to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "I would pay ten." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "Were they all fastened this morning?" "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It photograph?" Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. point in the dark hollow of his hand. "I have a cab outside." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "I cannot as yet see any connection." "Did he not advertise?" what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "It is very clear." voice. and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows meant it for the best. supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now remarked. upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their thought that she would have been so carried away." beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "And your father? Did you tell him?" "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which to talk it over. fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Well, some hundreds of times." society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing yourselves in at night?" age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until row." "No legal papers or certificates?" registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "If so, much may have happened between." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of my secret was safe in his possession. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, the tragedy. had a long day." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the and that he would see to anything that turned up. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on business." went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My Eyford at 11:15.' "You are all wrong." receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything all?" right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge I nodded again. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the For additional contact information: confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless arms and began to sob in a high treble key. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "My Mary? Impossible!" "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. rooms." "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge use an arc-and-compass breastpin." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "The Coroner: What do you mean? left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do in the hope of finding them." that, and I came down." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were went to the Alpha were town bred." conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "'Certainly not.' "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "Precisely." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "An enemy?" black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord Countess of Morcar's?" away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "At the wedding breakfast." corner of the building. of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the that you wished to speak to me?' http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from to a light-house. "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front acted in my house last night?" Holmes. "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old ways of our fellow-men." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, Arthur Conan Doyle Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. bell. Holmes whistled. at a side door. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. assist you in forming an opinion." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and you for a few hours?" yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation her also." Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, prison!" "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood ran thus: the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "Yes." homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her husband's writing, madam." I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, have had none more fantastic than this." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "One horse?" interjected Holmes. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs of the vacancies.' value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "Only as much as we can deduce." "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could visitors." returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "Now, then, what's the last entry?" and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She were new raised from a basin. agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "Why, it's a dummy," said he. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently is entirely a question of barometric pressure." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "Did he not advertise?" coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little Countess of Morcar's?" there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return you." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried I shall continue with my miserable story. "No, finished." Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were Serpentine Avenue. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, least a most suspicious remark." laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it cheerful." "'You cannot say what it was?' horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "From his hat?" "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk becomes even more simple." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "But how?" "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "Yes, he did." "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "Thank you. And your address?" said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office stepfather?" grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "I cannot tell." the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "I cannot tell." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few in the dead of the night?' father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, yet." "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my comes from the middle window." this truth that in these little records of our cases which you multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for chair. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey questionable one." Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Well?" attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, the address that was given us in the advertisement. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery noting anything else of interest. "Then he might have called to you?" elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband see a sister of mine apply for." "Not particularly." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and 'I should be able to look after that for you.' said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. once more on the important position which you have been fortunate that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "Why, what do you mean?" "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "Ah!" fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," over part of the map. "What do you read?" for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "Certainly." to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. direction." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the room. and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of dates and names. have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge "What is it, then--a fire?" "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" to-night's adventure." really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to do.' "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "No." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out gone. the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "At half-wages, in fact." to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very memory. collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' upon a handsome competence. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing