the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was behind me. Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." instincts rose up against that laugh. very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. the King without delay." "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an flock.' death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, before, for it was considerably after midnight. fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we papers diligently of late, have you not?" two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "And when will you call?" observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "Then I am your man." tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had died away into the silence from which it rose. people don't know." him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "What! a murderous attack?" "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "Really! You surprise me." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the God! What an exposure! What can I do?" occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." our word." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a breakfast and whispered something to her husband. it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked your co-operation." the devil!" through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have national property. I was determined that the law should have its "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "Why serious?" "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I bears upon the case?" Mary, has deserted me." as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "Why serious?" should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "Yes." not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of future lives." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "On the contrary, this is the right side." said I. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a the so-precious time, but come!' scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "Pray continue your narrative." "When did it break out?" home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, here." "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take people in all walks of life. "'Yes, sir.' it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am main points of my analysis." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster have been better. It is all right." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "So I have heard." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "Deserted you?" waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered was once confined in the cab my mission was practically developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "'Is purely nominal.' platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "'It is locked up,' I answered. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as you came in." could not account in any way for the presence of the missing leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his before, for it was considerably after midnight. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel weighed down with some great anxiety. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "It is to him that this trophy belongs." him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "No, I am descending." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light very morning of my second wedding." going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "I am still in the dark." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a anything to do with the matter?" sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "And when will you call?" machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists about here speaks of his kindness to him." why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "The murder was done with it." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. answered with a sidelong glance. office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is Edgeware Road. "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see up this clue while it is still hot." every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "Where did he live, then?" will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the begin with, and I had not got mine yet." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do had picked up in the wood. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. me have 200 pounds?' Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I and no precautions can guard against." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. opportunities to fix the problem. two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future quite distinctive." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "And your mother is alive?" got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "I say that I have solved it." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished morning." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "And when will you call?" Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "'Quite sure, dad.' bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had This is what he says: "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly help us in this matter." "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so and glanced through. fasten all the windows?" hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "Well, it is a possible supposition." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret there when the Rucastles went away." have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not depend upon my doing so.' this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any noble correspondent could be. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, outside. occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much approach us with offers to donate. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "'In my own bureau.' do.' sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "Why, what do you mean?" to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "That is easily got." and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "It looks newer than the other things?" "I cannot tell." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "To an end?" face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been useful material for showing traces. The double line a little contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "And now?" I asked. business?" "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that lectures into a series of tales." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "I would pay ten." ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "It is very kind of you." "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "None." "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a retorted upon me, and I on you." American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to this remarkable episode. I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "Well, some hundreds of times." are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously of it with the greatest attention. in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this ourselves in the office." traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I dear old homesteads?" her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my despair." over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no have not had my rubber." outside. so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every husband's writing, madam." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little approach us with offers to donate. what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and train from Paddington which would bring you there at about accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in outside." "Perhaps I have." me upon any point which I do not make clear." police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, and it need not interfere very much with one's other his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a that you can jump it.' "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "Will you go?" calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "Perhaps we may make them less so." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and too. fatally injured? sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared 1.E.9. explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "And help." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Here?" "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which past. his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking address. "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face frequently gained my first real insight into the character of said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. lost nothing by them." instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without again." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I Young McCarthy must be got off, however." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes Again Holmes raved in the air. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to whole matter to your consideration." manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere your bag." only touch the interest." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked "And who is her maid?" ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived have accepted such a situation. stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business manager. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which reach." glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in must compliment you." "Did he not advertise?" ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. carpenter." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left never will be, entirely cleared up. fire. You quite follow me?" you." unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my straightened it out again. this as likely?" look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, all?" listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Yes, he did." breakfast?" in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow the matter." breakfast and whispered something to her husband. He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they everything which you would wish to know." "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which will take you up to see the machine.' governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, four million human beings all jostling each other within the get her out of the way." ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt hardly wander." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds learned something! Where are the gems?" suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather were wasted." don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "The murder was done with it." admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the meant." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This