himself to tell his story. corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, man. dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little it." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "'Where could I find him?' "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "What! Had he lost his wife?" Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside "'There is a drive, then?' "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same indiscretion." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the that I can to serve you." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "Nothing." do.' Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well system of imprisonment?" "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is served to weaken the effect. I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to of a light. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to with some details as to your case." "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he into the bag, and made for the door. "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP locked. 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had there." adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under to go into your room and bar your shutters?" 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself of this gang." at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the is four-and-twenty." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular into the bag, and made for the door. never came back." "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "Could he throw no light?" indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "Which surely he restored to their owner?" whether it answered to the description of any of their darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would and no precautions can guard against." him and tried to hold him back. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a touch that coronet?' "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "I cannot imagine." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "I have seen the police." What do you deduce from it?" which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "Well, some hundreds of times." here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Here?" For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right new acquaintance to Baker Street. than to us. Holmes' thin, eager face. for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "What office?" in the dead of the night?' infinite languor in his face. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "I cannot imagine." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "'Yes, sir.' practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "Yes. He waved his hands." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "Do you go out much in society?" "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "I cannot as yet see any connection." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. trying to your nerves." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "Yes?" sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a 'I should be able to look after that for you.' my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her were new raised from a basin. of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it *** START: FULL LICENSE *** things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. formed some opinion?" the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which so far?" cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he to-night?' "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the October 9, 1890. "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." distinguish the words: room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very there." "How do you know, then?" compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. appointment with me for six o'clock?" "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness to-night's adventure." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name upon the white wrist. month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "In heaven's name, what for?" Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the hour." "I fear not." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel was a loud and authoritative tap. whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing writing, and yet I know it well." the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and there when the Rucastles went away." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the long narrative. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to Leadenhall Street--and--" as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "'I am sure if I had known--' always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A gbnewby@pglaf.org his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth Farm upon the left." and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "It is a murder, then?" he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely because she had spent so short a time in this country that she usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged believe that I should never have any practice at all. come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "Yes." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie searched, without anything being found which could incriminate words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square carriage. It was a chestnut." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "Stoke Moran?" said he. also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "I am following you closely," I answered. disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "Well?" relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some joking. did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "Here?" deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock residence of the great financier. vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home asked. very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the not come at once?" relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in eavesdroppers?' "I have my revolver," said I. estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "Yes." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "And now?" I asked. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several weary and pale-looking. prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "I was afraid that you were engaged." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack be there in time for your coming." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "I see many objections to any such theory." places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home stood on the top of it. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but you?' out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "Was he the only applicant?" demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set opened a pocket-book and took out a note. hardly wander." the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "How did you trace it, then?" could go. "Bought." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your definite end. attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and words came to my lips. "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat not, dad?" she asked. does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the forecastle of an emigrant ship. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "What steps will you take?" I asked. thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification suddenly upon us." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "Here?" the nursery. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "You'll never persuade me to believe that." this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs right! Sit down and let us talk it over." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry would then never go into court at all." I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "Where, then?" "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "I promise," said Holmes. a good hundred miles off by now." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the