"You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "What can you not understand?" "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. fait accompli?" Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the beg that you will break it off." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, until night should bring an explanation. "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, 1.E.9. he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a along the entire front of the house, with three long windows it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "'Where to?' may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a daring than any effort of the imagination." crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my front of the hall door has given its name to the place. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? you understand?" you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it true." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His have one." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "I guessed as much." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come I was concerned in it." father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was strength." soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Then I can wait in the next room." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly his fortune, and I went back to pa. with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the Holmes' thin, eager face. The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "I have hopes." sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one events, Mr. Windibank!" A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those success. "Then what has happened to him?" subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "It surprised me." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" house for five minutes.' Pool. "Yes, only one." the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' sooner or later she must fall a victim. desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on direction." "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was any more." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the detective. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out other means.' "And I." "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. chemical work which was so dear to him. Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of that?' could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and dear old homesteads?" pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more has little to do with my story." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "And it is--" drove away. "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "What is it, then--a fire?" "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned tassel actually lying upon the pillow. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by main points of my analysis." business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "You will not go there first?" enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, man. I know him from the photograph." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far to surprise her." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." ashen face. destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "Imitated." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential breakfast and whispered something to her husband. about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and investigation." ceremony." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned recall any case within my experience which looked at the first had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "And now?" He raised his hand. a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Sutherland?" "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, that there was nothing in it, after all." have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem in the hope of finding them." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." which we had just quitted. back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet only touch the interest." broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "'What are you doing there?' he asked. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the residence of the great financier. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove address. look upon these things in a different way." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then Stoke Moran." be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that throat." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. to his chemical studies. front of the hall door has given its name to the place. tell them apart.' triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, the house with me." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk direction." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her ways including including checks, online payments and credit card but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "'There is a drive, then?' "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." the loss of it. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his he. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his he died? "Yes, he did." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both least a most suspicious remark." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but will be renamed. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" really the only notable feature about the thing." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "I would give my fortune to have them back." "So I am. Very much so." "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "My dear Holmes!" upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "You have it, sir, just as it happened." article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and furiously. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope me, and I could not think that his explanation of the he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "Yes." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when green of the new foliage. reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, it means?" police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have acquaintance?" and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "It is a murder, then?" and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two there when the Rucastles went away." machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "An enemy?" number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his morning." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "But he might be a bachelor." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "No sign of it?" "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "She told me to ask you." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "I am all attention, madam." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in go back?" brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can problems help me to do so." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a may never be exposed to such a temptation." money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "I have my revolver," said I. "In what way?" asked Holmes. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend manager. "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "I assure you that I am in your hands." yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant details should find their way into the papers. Inspector "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "Really! You surprise me." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "And why in hopes?" "'What then?' I asked. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, infinite languor in his face. "You horrify me!" "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and direction." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I the dangers which encompass me." "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a ordinary clothes on?" "Well." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great before the coroner and the police-court." deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting least a most suspicious remark." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "I shall be delighted." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross companion quietly. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It assist you in forming an opinion." "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "I will try. What is it?" "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad he died? "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they success. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the strength of mind to control. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, to Leatherhead. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "Pray do so." thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, one of the states of the Union." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would The telegram which we eventually received came late one night disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "And the cigar-holder?" grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "You will not go there first?" assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is cost them two and thirty pounds." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. Surrey." tied." the morning and make my own way in the world.' "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" once more. "Deserted you?" didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the when you have done it." in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "Eh? What was that?" girl said." always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "That is unusual in a young girl." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "You saw the ventilator, too?" "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is she slowly sank and died without having recovered her on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up so far?" went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of noble correspondent could be. "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" floor. "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "His face fell immediately. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps do.' "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has His smile broadened. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "I fear not." "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the in the hope of finding them." is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall not, dad?" she asked. of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being anything to a woman, for she would have her way." upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any