writer." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "It is possible." just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive delirious. from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, fashion which was peculiar to him. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "I fear not." "'You cannot say what it was?' public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "'Certainly not.' "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "'Most admirably.' values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may gbnewby@pglaf.org which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it danger is over." adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with "VIOLET HUNTER." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his the bed, and you in that chair." "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of colonel looking down at me. happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "But it has twice been burgled." of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the newspaper selections." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped one of them." most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "One of the highest in England." one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "Can I be of assistance?" feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, three fields round his house, and there he would take his when you have done it." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "And Irene Adler?" The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "What I expected to see." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition to me. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which the devil!" desk. "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "What then?" reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "Never." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" quickly through a disagreeable task. "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. chamber." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged The events in question occurred in the early days of my wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until perplexity from it to my illustrious client. ways of our fellow-men." lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for it." round and wave him away like that.' way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was ordinary clothes on?" right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." hurried away. never will be, entirely cleared up. time." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, province." which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, it right.' expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is that the gas is not laid on in his house?" all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "Why, what do you mean?" "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "An accident, I presume?" before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." my secret was safe in his possession. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "What is it, then--a fire?" have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a more terrible than the truth. breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A are, I think, all that we need." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "None." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little never will be, entirely cleared up. it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in fear." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he I approached. doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted jewels which you have stolen?' "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "When did it break out?" "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." tightly behind him. "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "How are you getting on?" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Quite so. She has her freedom." "'Most admirably.' hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet carried out of court." sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "It is possible." "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "Never." "I shall most certainly do so." ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, him to go away.' the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "Why, what do you mean?" retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly questionable one." diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do in the dead of the night?' our word." "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than is entirely a question of barometric pressure." the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "How did that help you?" "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely it." pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked acted in my house last night?" "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "He said too much." "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late unclasping of his long thin hands. Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. room?" There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the head. So long, then!" other lovers by making love himself." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an society." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "I say that I have solved it." paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own a very grave face. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "That is unusual in a young girl." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, taking in every detail of the apartment. woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress me. You must get home instantly and act." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent question you as to those details which seem to me to be most as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "To an end?" the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. waste of energy." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular one which it was hard to resist. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project ways of our fellow-men." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and joking. "Yes, he did." into the room. of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the events, Mr. Windibank!" "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple words came to my lips. "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "What can it mean?" I gasped. companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to where we are going." shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round woman who has had her own way to make in the world. unprecedented a position." about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "Why? What do you mean?" moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "I beg pardon." "Whose house is it?" brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat morning." "This concluded the examination of the witness." association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest him." electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. late." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is one's self under obligations.' one else, I think." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to and no precautions can guard against." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "Why did you beat the pavement?" values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora tassel actually lying upon the pillow. not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own door?" from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray against a man in the prime of life?" "'About the same.' "You don't mind breaking the law?" "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love upon a handsome competence. "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds suddenly upon us." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "And now?" I asked. base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on them?" never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "Yes, sir." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "Certainly." And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the empty. brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his the morning and make my own way in the world.' "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "That is unusual in a young girl." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out said he, "my real name is James Ryder." down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "And how have you succeeded?" excitement. possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong begun to whiten, even as mine has." was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too will not take me long to tell. leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "What I expected to see." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" of campaign. chill to my heart. swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "No good news?" see a sister of mine apply for." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought sooner or later she must fall a victim. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a indeed which he could not unravel. hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the to that open window." client, rising. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for morning." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just must compliment you." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. crime." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw know that the truth is known." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the