be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. so.' was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "I was afraid that you were engaged." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was in him." habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "None." of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "You are all wrong." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible a good hundred miles off by now." my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "So I am. Very much so." "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly just called myself is not exactly my own." labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain been deceived." and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "'Is purely nominal.' some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing a monotonous occupation." the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was hereditary King of Bohemia." for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no that the gas is not laid on in his house?" hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was imbecility!" he cried. "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, late." "The King of Scandinavia." dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "Why did you pick him?" "Not yet." be there in time for your coming." turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case *** START: FULL LICENSE *** case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "What can it mean?" I gasped. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of what these perils are?" "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "And when will you call?" he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his side. that you can jump it.' I am not easy in my mind about them." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "One?" the general public were present, then?" he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the upon the sideboard." tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources a good hundred miles off by now." whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "Of what?" hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You that you can jump it.' throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as wanted for ourselves." address. to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to wanted for ourselves." you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "Certainly, madam." dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, papers must be those that are destroyed.' signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock as yours." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are towards the blaze. have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "Look there!" said he. have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have to-night?" I asked. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Were they all fastened this morning?" "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "They are typewritten," I remarked. "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the know all about it," he snarled. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father suspect him." "Here?" the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and carried out of court." is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "My dear Holmes!" entirely devoid of interest." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. DISSOLVED. burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year guilty one." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet goes." "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." such person." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, respectable self." believe that I should never have any practice at all. "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, indiscretion." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "Yes." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the distinguish the words: "How do you know, then?" which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it most important business. It is probable that he will be away all we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "I think that I had better go, Holmes." was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have meant." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. instincts rose up against that laugh. trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their conversation I have gathered that they have been married about The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "I will do it." that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." all that?" "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, bled considerably." leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "'Not at all. I only doubt--' cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible British peeress.'" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "But what is it you wish?" sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the second window is the one that I jumped from." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came obstinate." in him." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks said I. that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat to have been novel and of interest." glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a humiliation." whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, spare." "Dark enough and sinister enough." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his drove away. gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as ordinary clothes on?" answer." The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "Not particularly." upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and in one or two places in England?' feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. people don't know." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll to go into your room and bar your shutters?" confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" murdered man." "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the Leave Paddington by the 11:15." cigar and let me expound." the child." London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his intrusion of other matters." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from drawing your inferences." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle even so self-evident a thing as that." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "Bought." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the James Windibank. Voilà tout!" observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my matter." was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "It may not come to that," said Holmes. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "Can I be of assistance?" said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "What then?" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home on in his house." empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "No sign of it?" like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three Literary Archive Foundation adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the off." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with three fields round his house, and there he would take his "Look there!" said he. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came charge against him will break down." "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "How are you getting on?" retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "Where, indeed?" infinite languor in his face. its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "I would give my fortune to have them back." may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "You don't mind breaking the law?" "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "About a month then." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and affair. Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I very morning of my second wedding." "But what harm can there be in that?" appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is over part of the map. "What do you read?" them?" have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all http://gutenberg.net/license). "'Yes.' give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "Your sister is dead, then?" lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "'Stolen!' he cried. the matter?" very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered Where does the thing come from?' prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an woman." correct than the official force." the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether prison!" little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." results." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "I warn you that they are very incomplete." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the strong and stiff." again before evening." 1.F. it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident of your young ladies.' a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is a very grave face. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "I will not look." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. me. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "Yes, but only for you and me." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "In which, sir?" stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with about. away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent I shall communicate with you." "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "I will get her to show me."