"Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know and put his glass in his pocket. The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "My private note-paper." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, room. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version and the church but not where the lady lived." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to me what he had done with the three missing stones. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "Look there!" said he. on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' visitors." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love peculiar to him. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than do.' "Perhaps we may make them less so." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We to talk it over. bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "What! You do not mean bodies?" and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. to-night." "Did your wife hear all this?" "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love garden below. on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would daring than any effort of the imagination." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less was feeling which was the fattest.' this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has works. up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the experiences." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding nothing of it?" office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "Well, it is a possible supposition." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "Where did he live, then?" for and were ordered to this address. they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "And is that all?" "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say Doctor, of the paper and the date." sooner or later she must fall a victim. "Has he come with you to-night?" lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "I have solved it." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at south, for the country is more deserted there." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside swore that no one else had been in the front room during the made him keep the appointment." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "I have my revolver," said I. Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, Eyford." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's gbnewby@pglaf.org "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." hand, madam?" paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss again on its way. been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will arms and began to sob in a high treble key. be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle gone. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "Have you it here?" lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "One of his hands." "My dear Holmes!" rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "It is very clear." It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "It is a murder, then?" sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into definite end. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "Yes, but only for you and me." "Always." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just thought that she would have been so carried away." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "No." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "Oh, fresh and glossy." is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's business." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "Thank you. And your address?" particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "'I shall certainly be there.' so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. country, and eventually married, without anyone having a fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back I shall continue with my miserable story. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a tear off another piece?' is now desirous of getting those letters back." written. "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 strange features which were associated with the two crimes which Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of salesman. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and case-book, which he consulted. pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I certainly do as you advise." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the matters immensely." are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "I should like to see him very much." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I lost nothing by them." Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "I cannot think." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this upon the shelf for the interim." "Eh? What was that?" as he folded up the epistle. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried Mrs. Toller serenely. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of the dangers which encompass me." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "Pray do so." "A greater distance to travel." "Bought." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the London for the present?" fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "What have you to say now?" "Perhaps we may make them less so." How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who placed his cuttings. washing it down with a long draught of water. tell him that I know him to be innocent." woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "I will, Miss Turner." "What then?" "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout whatever might befall. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "My dear Holmes!" "'I am sure if I had known--' "Did your wife hear all this?" house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience woven round him. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich south, for the country is more deserted there." "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat unclasping of his long thin hands. events than those which have happened in my own family." excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." "How can you tell that?" and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the Sutherland?" stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had your equipment. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of electronic works relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some fatally injured? indeed which he could not unravel. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "And it is--" wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is house for five minutes.' his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close might help us?" "I assure you that I am in your hands." He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the of Mr. Rucastle's." reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. place, I think that there is good ground to think that the and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, It was close upon four before the door opened, and a and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "To the police?" Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a congratulate you again." character. of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that been." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "Yes." have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, views." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "It is no ordinary one." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an you." front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced redistribution. there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Precisely so. But how--" The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in which it had come upon my father." "And what did you learn from him?" in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, I nodded to show that I had heard. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that Farm upon the left." envelope. the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." on in his house." The summons was a brief and urgent one. It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales door?" Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple congenial hunt. purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "What I expected to see." outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. answered with a sidelong glance. from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed McCarthy." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "What can you not understand?" "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." galvanised. "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was he bowed and left the room without another word. expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, the inner apartment." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great leave you to your papers for a little." 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us delighted to hear it," he said. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Have you it here?" walking." slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to purpose of examination. "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast are windows in it, of course?" are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure American. Then who could this American be, and why should he here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "Pray tell us what has happened to you." from the brougham. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four one which it was hard to resist. to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "No, distinctly professional." my special province." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "How on earth--" Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend to tell." over here." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, call you and give you the chance." charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which he bowed and left the room without another word. which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of hour." indeed happy." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready room had already been engaged for us. "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, envelope. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at matter over." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able