"About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it made him keep the appointment." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church orange pips. "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "I am in hopes that she does." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful late!' this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, during the last few years, and there are many noble families to so.' "Well." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." and shall probably return to London by the evening train." either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "But how could you guess what the motive was?" face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room business." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the one which it was hard to resist. for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms and the whole place is in a blaze." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been of the way of danger. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing to-morrow." very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "It's nothing of the kind." touch that coronet?' quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "So I heard. You have him here?" "And how did you verify them?" "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." ourselves in the office." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who returning from some small jollification and was making his way Cross for the Continent." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a in him." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with one which it was hard to resist. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate was a perfect sample of the class. hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who you, my dear young lady?' out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged were wasted." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "And Miss Sutherland?" fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid yourselves in at night?" vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. and put his glass in his pocket. some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ closing the door. "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, gone. and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy of the way of danger. man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "None. Neville wrote those words." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." London for the present?" Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in into her hand at the door and which lured her within their eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that fishes. assist you in forming an opinion." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense infinite languor in his face. in this way: "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was papers." armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly to-night." envelope. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted front of the hall door has given its name to the place. could gather together that I was able to avert another public "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the carpenter." the Assizes." he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a later, upon the night of May 2nd." governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, to-night's adventure." Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a silent! Oh, he will be silent!' but preventing her from injuring another. Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as might have a private word with us. Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest in him." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very new acquaintance to Baker Street. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been Holmes' room. "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "But I have heard all that you have heard." I shall continue with my miserable story. I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." crackling voice. relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "Her father is very rich?" earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of come either from the window or the door. My attention was impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "But I am all in the dark." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has electronic works "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "'Tell me all about it,' said I. red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for helping a boy to put up the shutters. Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "And how did he make his money?" premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "Yes, from Horsham." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "What shall I do?" woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "And what did you learn from him?" "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point any more." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Not in a good cause." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Why? What do you mean?" given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him of your young ladies.' concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "No, I think that I'll take it." which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "I know where it is." "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned and the church but not where the lady lived." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "It was." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of http://gutenberg.net/license). outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking absorbing." array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "'What, the red-headed man?' "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to The King stared at him in amazement. them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "Yes, he did." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family silent! Oh, he will be silent!' said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work had a long day." though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside weary and pale-looking. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "I think it very unlikely." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually happened." But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "Perhaps I have." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the read it out to me." provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to the King without delay." accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "In San Francisco, a year ago." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough that I may have something better before very many minutes are weary and pale-looking. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for nights." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. observed. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we "Perhaps I have." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his Mary, has deserted me." brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this indeed happy." matter." window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH himself to tell his story. former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any amused." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his was keenly on my guard against him. the running down." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very bare slabs of marble. "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "How did you deduce the select?" puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "Was there a secret marriage?" returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall careless servant girl?" became a certainty. "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to examination of the premises, but without finding anything which high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do case before our client came into the room." Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another strength in the others." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." the inner apartment." kind enough to tell me what I should do." When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "In San Francisco, a year ago." But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those appeal." the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "BALLARAT." shall use the carriage to-night." edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were "A call for help, you thought?" of note-paper. It read in this fashion: natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." Mary, has deserted me." While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in you in your example." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical maid will bring up your coffee." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector this as likely?" the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." returned to France?" therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was about. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." indeed which he could not unravel. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' I nodded again. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is foresight and the moral retrogression?" to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such in this way: while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. returned to France?" "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "What will you do, then?" battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him the so-precious time, but come!' hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "I should wish to." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss acted in my house last night?" were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold your most interesting statement." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning are, I think, all that we need." glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue without a word or a look. "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Game for a morning drive?" for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "'You doubt its value?' he asked. with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Come in!" said he. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I developed." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "'I have already given you my word.' "The best possible." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "How on earth--" have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall this as likely?" "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. outbreak?" British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?"