"Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of cigars in their mouths. "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' chill to my heart. "You have compromised yourself seriously." is," said he presently: the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "My opinion is in no way altered." deduce something from that?" into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "He said that you could solve anything." together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "I have hopes." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "My stepfather's business papers." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers mystery." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for been with you?" "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature excitement. business." certainly do as you advise." in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your upon the shelf for the interim." cigar and let me expound." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were leave you to your papers for a little." coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he whether it answered to the description of any of their our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted to a light-house. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "'Stolen!' he cried. in his hands." "No, I am descending." at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had what do you think they found in the pockets?" large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a went to the Alpha were town bred." warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my awkward doing business with an alias." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" 1.E.9. copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "This photograph!" "Yes." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they depend upon your compliance." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "On Monday." cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "BALLARAT." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from despair." seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it said he at last. far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "And on what day did he meet his death?" correct than the official force." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "She told me to ask you." which should have the effect of calling the attention of the I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the not use it unless it is absolutely needed." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "'What, the red-headed man?' Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in his knees, staring into the fire. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as you in yours." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut tell him that I know him to be innocent." copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees may have an influence upon European history." instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as fattened it expressly for you.' money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which my friend's incisive reasoning. window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning know that the truth is known." planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "Entirely." fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. one else, I think." with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I over part of the map. "What do you read?" by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it fluttered off among the others. "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "Ample." her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "Deserted you?" "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger voice. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies the Friday. Was it to be in church?" pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." go--none." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "My own seal." as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of what these perils are?" to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that room?" dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. four million human beings all jostling each other within the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "He might." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the was feeling which was the fattest.' against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man this truth that in these little records of our cases which you tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, weighed down with some great anxiety. the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the forebodings. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding seem to you to be relevant or not." this poor creature." police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which said he. town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a woven round him. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "Very much so." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "It must be recovered." examine." "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt has little to do with my story." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to foot. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." and capable of preserving a secret.' he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little chemical work which was so dear to him. your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "But how did you gain them?" the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method it. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek skylight. arms and began to sob in a high treble key. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have This is what he says: inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given you in your example." "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire during that time.' so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is read over the extraordinary announcement. yourselves in at night?" acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of at my remark. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, question. endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you to surprise her." Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "But what harm can there be in that?" that you can jump it.' depend upon your compliance." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy characteristics, but those are the more obvious." note?" ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must carried out of court." three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." as noiselessly as she had come. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court cheerful." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he drawing your inferences." matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he His smile broadened. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been read it out to me." and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got sit on the left-hand side of the driver." gentleman's clothes. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My closely." It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do it with his own hands." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "Not in the least." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." breakfast and whispered something to her husband. Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "One of his hands." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my green of the new foliage. "I cannot tell." reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the taking in every detail of the apartment. product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "To an end?" your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' was feeling which was the fattest.' "Then what has happened to him?" doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Her father is very rich?" As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given system of imprisonment?" "And is that all?" rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "A call for help, you thought?" took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been my special province." tell me that you intended to go into harness." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I never to learn it at all." 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "It is half-past ten now." "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, outsides of the windows. crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs "Her father is very rich?" its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed horse could go." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "Thank you. And your address?" "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. suddenly upon us." Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Yes." wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important a little more before I quite committed myself. details should find their way into the papers. Inspector was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, "'What do you call purely nominal?' side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start constraint." "How are you getting on?" in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is fire. You quite follow me?" page at http://pglaf.org speckled band?" think, you have already met." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute did not hear it also.' "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I excitement. Foundation home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting copied or distributed: the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "Certainly." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "I never have." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the seem to you to be relevant or not." pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to drawing your inferences." of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and returning from some small jollification and was making his way hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to copied or distributed: and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is round with crates and massive boxes. web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first seen the man in the road." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest husband's writing, madam." days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted one which it was hard to resist. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "None." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with soul! here is her carriage at the door." "Then he might have called to you?" a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no less than 26s. 4d. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that never to learn it at all." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I answer." freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "Certainly." darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three Street.