"He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "Where did he live, then?" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of chamber." at once, for I have only half an hour." headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a with some details as to your case." that I can to serve you." ventilator." me what he had done with the three missing stones. "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his there has been an enclosure here!" unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I rooms." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "It is a murder, then?" into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "Yes, he did." unprecedented a position." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "An enemy?" who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that woman who has had her own way to make in the world. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left wanted for ourselves." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account correct than the official force." Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "Pray let us have it, for all that." existence." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a so far?" broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "To ruin me." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "'And what are they worth?' I asked. prepare for the new role I have to play." object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. footfalls from the street. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "BALLARAT." deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles pity, because in other respects you would really have done very seem to you to be relevant or not." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "Yes." "Get out!" said he. of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth your Highness to the police-station?" "'And what are they worth?' I asked. gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked question you as to those details which seem to me to be most or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' behind me. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John him to go away.' The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "You saw the ventilator, too?" threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. IS hand, madam?" the matter?" a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. at once, for I have only half an hour." to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and indeed which he could not unravel. and glanced through. a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining learned something! Where are the gems?" good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "And I." mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I murdered man." papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "We must have a cab." wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry you do it in twenty minutes!' minor matters until to-morrow." out." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "And your father? Did you tell him?" "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." been shamefully used." a suggestive one." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "An enemy?" am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "One of the highest in England." affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George society." and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, prepare for the new role I have to play." shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love Literary Archive Foundation now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of purpose of examination. tapping his fingers upon the table. "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "I am following you closely," I answered. points in connection with it which never have been, and probably in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, suspect him." present." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client was lame." lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they cigars in the box." "'Yes, sir.' really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "I am still in the dark." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "VIOLET HUNTER." London for the present?" The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by possible that we could bring him back to her? crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. the dangers which encompass me." head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "You will not go there first?" you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "No legal papers or certificates?" "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "No." many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "I promise," said Holmes. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination touch that coronet?' had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the papers must be those that are destroyed.' will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others have not had my rubber." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend who was a member of your goose club." transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that that?' "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another will he say when he returns?" bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you closely." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." Gutenberg-tm License. to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was voice, changing her seat as requested. hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "Very much so." "Tired-looking or fresh?" written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "Won't it ring?" my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two interest. They are important, you understand, without being remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "I guessed as much." of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and very morning of my second wedding." shaken than I had ever seen him. the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" business." "You will not go there first?" "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a for and were ordered to this address. "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." Watson," he said cordially. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the "But how did you gain them?" Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to McCarthy's innocence. 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would in the port of London." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "Why did you beat the pavement?" silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "'No, I know no one in these parts.' sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as think that any burglar could have done. through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled this man was intellectual?" game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four is so. I know all about McCarthy." time." "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "How did you trace it, then?" "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "I answered that I had not. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to and wait." like gravel from a pit.' prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the http://www.gutenberg.net with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part during that time.' flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "None." occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy call for it in person on Monday morning.' confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the little trying to do so much typewriting?" "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "Yes." it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "And did you observe any change in her then?" copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering disappearance of the bride.'" drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's you give your casting vote to?" few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed sooner or later she must fall a victim. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if tightly behind him. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which you do it in twenty minutes!' sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to Foundation sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "A thing like a cleaver," said he. receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy you came in." "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a cigars in the box." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "Perhaps we may make them less so." means taking possession of that which another person has a prior him. this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a beyond words. "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no newspaper selections." wall." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came but preventing her from injuring another. intrusion of other matters." where she found matters as described by the last witness. "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "How many? I don't know." IS door?" adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, off." long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim past. address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "But who is he?" second window is the one that I jumped from." too. way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'Not at all. I only doubt--' for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing father's young wife. "To an end?" look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring you understand?" me. from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of the warnings." the morning and make my own way in the world.' "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the him nearly every evening." Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Yes, I have one waiting." and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "But your client--" gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly pressing in one house as in another. corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual tear off another piece?' before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "In San Francisco, a year ago." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." him to go away.' a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat get her out of the way." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "And how did you find out?" eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "What office?" where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To enter into my head. stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle I shall continue with my miserable story. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. business came to an end." Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "Then I am your man." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving it with his own hands." half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "Her father is very rich?" third from London." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive where we are going." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "Breckinridge is his name." closely." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my respectable self." to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce again on its way.