naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there are windows in it, of course?" possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." remarked. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "'Certainly not.' resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. less than 26s. 4d. secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord you found me to-night--and running through the front room she had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in I shall communicate with you." first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Very truly yours, disturbance in my wife." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. there has been an enclosure here!" company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all events, Mr. Windibank!" hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "Yes, I have one waiting." you." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "Precisely." to that open window." Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "But it has twice been burgled." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle Clair, of Lee." "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me Sholtos." "How often?" the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich sparkled upon his finger. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending would apply.' "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, cheerful." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his the so-precious time, but come!' Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb call for protection in the marriage market, for the present his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his had formerly been in part my own. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite off." fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed generous with you in money matters.' his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, furiously. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been charge against him will break down." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and province." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything tension within him. if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble morning." Have you good authority for what you say?" of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "A call for help, you thought?" that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time me what he had done with the three missing stones. little adventures." passage and a tap at the door. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be that there was nothing in it, after all." Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man in the port of London." one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do happened." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But three fields round his house, and there he would take his heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her and the church but not where the lady lived." "Yes, sir." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of to-night?" I asked. "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and the bottom.' The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you some place of shelter and let the county police know what has dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black formed some opinion?" all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "What is it?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said over part of the map. "What do you read?" Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these may have an influence upon European history." "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the my secret was safe in his possession. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. followed. "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "What! a murderous attack?" stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "It missed him, then?" footfalls from the street. Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us coat-tails." colonel looking down at me. any little problem which you may submit to me." years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, so.' at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action felt the room to be a little close.' the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of views." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to all?" "And how?" "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "No." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting have not had my rubber." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the guilty one." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. entirely lost his self-respect." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "Yes, all." "Why? What do you mean?" of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was own family. upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. locked. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and anything to a woman, for she would have her way." glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different This is what he says: the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than status with the IRS. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "And Irene Adler?" all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in them?" Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions pressing in one house as in another. "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well to me. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely residence of the great financier. said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should my former friend and companion. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We derbies." "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "I don't say that. Perhaps." off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered shall not find me ungrateful." with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You will find little credit to be gained out of this case." for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "Yes." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the Mrs. Toller serenely. and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "Where did you address your letters, then?" (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few vanished into the darkness. surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, knowledge of the world." well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they get her out of the way." get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "Not in a good cause." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what absolutely follow my advice in every respect." do.' should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door whereabouts. constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." posted to-day." "Yes, at the mines." returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "Has he come with you to-night?" "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good morning." the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which looking up at the numbers of the houses." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "Yes." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "What then?" "Do you know him?" waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for mystery." very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was silent! Oh, he will be silent!' St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "But we can't all be." "Well." such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "The doctor?" papers must be those that are destroyed.' even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, DISSOLVED. Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come unprofitable." sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the such attractions and accomplishments?' of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "I am still in the dark." "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "It is no ordinary one." state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "Come in!" said he. your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, she has been waylaid. There has been no result." other means.' shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "I cannot imagine." "'Entirely.' Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning ceremony." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" round and wave him away like that.' people in all walks of life. "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "I know where it is." Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "I should wish to." lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your danger is over." hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several Watson," he said cordially. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "And how?" rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "And your mother is alive?" gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "You think that he is dead?" to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent simple cases which are so extremely difficult." perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have