pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we direction." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "But we can't all be." Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "Yes, there are nearly always some there." an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. mystery!" with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "How do you know, then?" therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is 1.E.9. without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Your presence might be invaluable." "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, awaited us upon the table. job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought it." "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "One of the highest in England." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. past. should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, Street. "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "So I am. Very much so." "My photograph." mysterious end." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "You are hungry," I remarked. adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "But she will refuse." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing kindly on the shoulder. opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong and effective." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. danger is over." posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "I was mad--insane." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings six. Come in!" He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "And how?" train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "10th. John Swain cleared. you, my dear young lady?' a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a beyond words. a monotonous occupation." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the that the gas is not laid on in his house?" that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "But it has twice been burgled." either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. gives a meaning to it." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth than was visible to me." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "On your arm?" one's self under obligations.' upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked people don't know." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "That is possible." looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more of his shoulders. way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': had no one to advise her at such a crisis." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "Why did you beat the pavement?" electronic works labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "At the wedding breakfast." been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of felt?" tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "My own seal." were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe written, and locked the door of the office after me. "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't McCarthy's innocence. "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she third from London." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a morning." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "I am sure." "Yes, he did." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "Won't it ring?" "Pray do so." Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and Gutenberg-tm License. find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a hurried away. it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must skylight. expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "I assure you that I am in your hands." she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "But the mystery?" Holmes' thin, eager face. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat forehead. self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He written. years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "My dear Holmes!" reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "I don't say that. Perhaps." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, noting anything else of interest. soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on fish-monger and a tide-waiter." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we You want to know what became of those geese?" overpowering excitement and concern. you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit presented which may be striking and bizarre without being piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On habit of advancing money.' cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a the very morning of the wedding." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for his wife has ceased to love him." pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "Very much so." disappearance of these gems?" without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself a suggestive one." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "'What then?' I asked. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a Foundation "I was afraid that you were engaged." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded arrangements." Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. the stones. the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of here and I will read it to you: himself to tell his story. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "None." the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "'A dozen yards or so.' "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side soul! here is her carriage at the door." Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "A call for help, you thought?" brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they back alive. of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram been deceived." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a the roots. hour?' "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is a room. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up coroner's jury." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were with you alone." followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in unclasping of his long thin hands. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE your own bird, so if you wish--" bare slabs of marble. without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with forecastle of an emigrant ship. "What is it, then--a fire?" from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones second." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know locked. down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest a good hundred miles off by now." scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, the coronet in his hands?" confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it eavesdroppers?' "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew kind enough to tell me what I should do." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room him, that man would not have given me such complete information this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into States. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their Holmes." "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any Literary Archive Foundation which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the acted in my house last night?" hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and bill, which interests me deeply." within hail.' may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong of the one which your family is now devouring." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad the tragedy. "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole that I can to serve you." the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "It is very kind of you." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to trifles." the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "I never have." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. remarked. deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "Only as much as we can deduce." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "But what is it you wish?" "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will maid will bring up your coffee." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have http://www.gutenberg.net apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." been shamefully used." "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, their singular warning or token before them when starting upon well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence she used." "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "No." With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "'Entirely.' company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on security.' rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you charge against him will break down." suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it round with crates and massive boxes. without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with salesman. face and glided from the room. "'Yes, I promise.' said I. arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such thought that she would have been so carried away." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the