you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "In heaven's name, what for?" Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "Quite so." depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's not, dad?" she asked. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in strength in the others." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his noise which awoke you from your sleep?" Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the cheerful." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." will find little credit to be gained out of this case." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able past. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "'Where to?' troubles have been weighing upon his mind. me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "We must have a cab." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." in this way: particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which tell them apart.' depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there certainly do as you advise." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always get her out of the way." note?" cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and for its centre. "Nothing?" money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London matter over." of the one which your family is now devouring." "What! You do not mean bodies?" meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been lost his Christmas dinner." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and vague figure huddled up in the darkness. me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "How do you know, then?" round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my forecastle of an emigrant ship. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen call for it in person on Monday morning.' "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." window when the police appeared." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this this as likely?" of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked fashion which was peculiar to him. and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had have not had my rubber." dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked conduct the inquiry." tell them apart.' the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I hopeless attempt at recovering them." Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "And now?" I asked. look upon these things in a different way." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "Did your wife hear all this?" "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and the station." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard murdered man." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "Yes." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be your only hope of safety." than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of persecution?" of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, was a perfect sample of the class. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and public press." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "I will get her to show me." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not morning." locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. following enigmatical notices: upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She politicians who had been sent down from the North. thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "The knees of his trousers." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by just called myself is not exactly my own." "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "No. What a strange idea!" shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed Miss Holder?" "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." purpose equally well?" her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can was once confined in the cab my mission was practically keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my it were putty." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had as noiselessly as she had come. looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between burst out into a roar of laughter. abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "That is it on the dressing-table." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get door?" Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by cup of tea. and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "Never." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "It is solved." merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which useful material for showing traces. The double line a little monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, speckled band?" other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, or other trace. But how on earth--" as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped there when the Rucastles went away." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the as he remarks, very much against the son." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "You are certainly joking, Holmes." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "There are none." was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, things are very often connected not with the larger but with the said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. take the flies, but not before." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always is so. I know all about McCarthy." before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. it with his own hands." the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I is now desirous of getting those letters back." "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "'You doubt its value?' he asked. case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. at once, for I have only half an hour." "Pray do so." "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "And help." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers States. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "But the mystery?" Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' a good hundred miles off by now." "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney over here." The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "What have you to say now?" "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a promised to bring home. Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in eat it." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ relief. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "Here?" was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think vague figure huddled up in the darkness. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, detective. hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "But your client--" anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "Dr. Becher's." "Yes, I have one waiting." "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "There are none." regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "No, finished." trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; During two years I have had three consultations and one small reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, once more for Briony Lodge. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "Yes." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which persecution?" do.' was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," the coroner come to?" cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after the King without delay." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was absorbing." was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, not use it unless it is absolutely needed." be. "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "'A dozen yards or so.' "Can I be of assistance?" "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this over part of the map. "What do you read?" out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "Yes, at the mines." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest too. play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert I shall continue with my miserable story. look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to away to you." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able straightened it out again. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "Pray continue your narrative." ashen face. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian the station." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a he. breakfast and whispered something to her husband. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "'What would be the hours?' I asked. telegram would bring me down to your help." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "Yes." you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and questioning and rather startled gaze. Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that to-night's adventure." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me without success. At last the little money which I had saved began flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the to-night?" I asked. prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So weary and pale-looking. one of them." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I who was a member of your goose club." excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are him and tried to hold him back. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his 11:15.' "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second the driver. Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from public press." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower relief. such person." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "Then, how do you know?" the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom direction." the devil!" or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and disturbance in my wife." certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is suggested at once that there must be a communication between the transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. 1.F. When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "And Irene Adler?" upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "What I expected to see." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, may never be exposed to such a temptation." did not hear it also.' from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will in darkness.