way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Certainly, madam." "Awake, Watson?" he asked. daring than any effort of the imagination." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "None." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in obstinate." envelope. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Yesterday." at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get during that time.' own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to with you alone." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in imbecility!" he cried. cost them two and thirty pounds." brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client might have a private word with us. the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "'What then?' I asked. "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch bears upon the case?" other lovers by making love himself." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could 1.F. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "Certainly, madam." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your chance at all." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it bled considerably." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "The vanishing of the lady." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "'Certainly not. But why?' best detective that ever lived. "Seven!" I answered. that, and I came down." It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the Henry Baker is a member." "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "That was it, sir." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, down from London to inquire more deeply into it." to-night?" I asked. "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "An accident, I presume?" heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "'You doubt its value?' he asked. the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. at a side door. "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything fact, we may call it conclusive." received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been have not had my rubber." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. morning." read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous "Won't it ring?" "You horrify me." "I answered that I had not. he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little answer." your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "But I am all in the dark." "10th. John Swain cleared. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from since then to throw any light upon what became of him." advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "Never to return." "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the will be renamed. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can that I can to serve you." abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the the inner apartment." "Which are?" the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "It is no ordinary one." writers could invent nothing more crude." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was colour had been driven from his face. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "Did he not advertise?" License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched detained." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the place, I think that there is good ground to think that the slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent vanished into the darkness. eavesdroppers?' to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "Here?" passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates to tell." "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I man. I know him from the photograph." like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, him." electronic works murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "Yes, but only for you and me." south, for the country is more deserted there." fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "But not more so than I to find you." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a fat-encircled eyes. dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "And the cigar-holder?" He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in see me here to avoid scandal." and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the 1.F. her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. breakfast." Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring a little more before I quite committed myself. one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she strange features which were associated with the two crimes which to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, face and glided from the room. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "BALLARAT." invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few at once, for I have only half an hour." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, keep the flames under. cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that room?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." handed it to him. trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." whole matter to your consideration." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "Pray do so." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever woman who has had her own way to make in the world. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel bears upon the case?" warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "What, then?" and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "None." "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "A call for help, you thought?" play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. and your relations to her." a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "And what then?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she wedding?" received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with would apply.' "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair little trying to do so much typewriting?" standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the what I may call a really hard day's work." severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "'Ample.' heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "Well, some hundreds of times." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, advice." but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting money should be paid at once.' "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" interests were the same as his." straightened it out again. as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. important." solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian weighed down with some great anxiety. "ARAT," I read. "In heaven's name, what for?" face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a not as remarkable as your advertisement." "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his sit on the left-hand side of the driver." this unhappy family?" statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning which should have the effect of calling the attention of the halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There as he remarks, very much against the son." the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the and that he would see to anything that turned up. golden eyeglasses. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On system of imprisonment?" we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "'I am sure if I had known--' when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "Where, indeed?" "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently kindly on the shoulder. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he he bowed and left the room without another word. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the digesting their breakfasts at home." How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening him nearly every evening." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that crowd. rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" cause to be." hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the arrangements." "She showed me, as I told you she would." "The best possible." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "I have hopes." the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "Yes. He waved his hands." her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "'Not at all. I only doubt--' electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step morning." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should weighed down with some great anxiety. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his man. I know him from the photograph." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had be sorry for having acted so harshly." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not I nodded again. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "Look there!" said he. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no locked. breakfast and whispered something to her husband. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. go from here to the Strand." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "What can it mean?" I gasped. it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with of the way of danger. "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about strength of mind to control. "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "My dear Holmes!" I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg not interfere, come what may. You understand?" upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. him to go away.' from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the directors have had misgivings upon the subject." him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Not in a good cause." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which For additional contact information: to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. furiously. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon was not a bird to be seen there. d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "Why, it's a dummy," said he. c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, highly," said Holmes. fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. done what I asked you, Jones?" vanished into the darkness. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "But of what society?" in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this tightly behind him. drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards