was once confined in the cab my mission was practically happened." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." of Fenchurch Street." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I them?" journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "I am about to be married." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly past. smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," tension within him. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "You are certainly joking, Holmes." to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be ways of our fellow-men." "I have my revolver," said I. "Yes, it was twisted." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried morning." it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "I have hopes." direction." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but with you alone." and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley not as remarkable as your advertisement." he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient said I. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father shaken than I had ever seen him. "Here?" appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of with some details as to your case." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in Gutenberg-tm License. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the me upon any point which I do not make clear." as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow tell me that you intended to go into harness." his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" be best to do. to that open window." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to in your London, you will know that the office of the company is lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." your Highness to the police-station?" "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord and the whole place is in a blaze." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been hands. The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "Well, some hundreds of times." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination London for the present?" "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. the Assizes." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is never to learn it at all." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "Very. But will he see it?" Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of the tragedy. will he say when he returns?" made him keep the appointment." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "I don't believe it." glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the now. It seems that there had been some informality about their but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been front of me. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well other lovers by making love himself." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "No legal papers or certificates?" glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he my former friend and companion. delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is his forehead." "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "Nothing?" month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked a very grave face. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm third from London." the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "Will you bet, then?" cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "It is no ordinary one." of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "He might." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "It surprised me." in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were system of imprisonment?" know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to words came to my lips. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you your sleep?' crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. gone. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "Get out!" said he. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I your troubles." Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "I will, Miss Turner." strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in http://gutenberg.net/license). yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place to-night?" I asked. "Ten will be early enough." "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can point our research must commence, and we will begin it by threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal me have 200 pounds?' occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in fled together." deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in him!" Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his pierced for earrings?" logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the past. rose-bushes. I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very once more for Briony Lodge. God! What an exposure! What can I do?" waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch yards of it?' I approached. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I room?" suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, held up the lantern and gazed about him. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. room had already been engaged for us. think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per nonsense.' out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a to his chemical studies. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "What will you do, then?" backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden in my life." see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "At what time?" has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I Sholtos." "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless from the brougham. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "It may not come to that," said Holmes. Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest mystery may be cleared along those lines." in the hope of finding them." where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "By no means." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in there in twenty minutes." Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their him nearly every evening." high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "'And what salary do you ask?' you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And a suggestive one." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. begin with, and I had not got mine yet." than to us. no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one these bleak autumnal evenings." "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose have not had my rubber." "What will you say?" "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations round and wave him away like that.' borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "At what time?" the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we weary and pale-looking. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, and looked back. murdered man." bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the the morning and make my own way in the world.' of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "Texas, I think." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the examine." at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the Munro.' "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, my little problems." it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "At the wedding breakfast." empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two money should be paid at once.' in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we on in his house." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "No. His orders were to stay in the house." convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an had no one to advise her at such a crisis." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out what these perils are?" Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the outsides of the windows. seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient it." at home. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" of the way of danger. for its centre. statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent fuss that is made over them." it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I whole matter to your consideration." kind enough to tell me what I should do." tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a said he at last. served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door arms and began to sob in a high treble key. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A your Highness to the police-station?" half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "A confidential servant?" clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home there." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his hopeless attempt at recovering them." which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue Farm upon the left." bill, which interests me deeply." stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal I think that I could be of assistance to you." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." other means.' "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all chambers. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "Very much so." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. telegram would bring me down to your help." villagers almost as much as their master. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an with the outside air!" am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "Indeed! Whose, then?" foot. "I don't say that. Perhaps." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy this Miss Turner." I think that I could be of assistance to you." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for despaired of." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each do." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "Well." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "'Very good.' "He disappeared so suddenly." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell nonsense.' IS counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than cost them two and thirty pounds." along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes.