"Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not your troubles." houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, chill to my heart. a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having fire. You quite follow me?" the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He any." despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. taking in every detail of the apartment. floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "Two days later this same performance was gone through under go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, more solid." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited better grown goose." some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only floor. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up arrested. You then--" The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my status with the IRS. "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty emerged. "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "Not in the least." it." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both overpowering excitement and concern. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we here." month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. meanly of me." or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "'How far from the body?' following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "We must sit without light. He would see it through the note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. forbidden door. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one crime." charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. flock.' scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Really! You surprise me." "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you now. It seems that there had been some informality about their "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a at home. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable go--none." "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "The Cedars?" beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "Who was the criminal, then?" because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "It is his hat." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very ran thus: on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler emerged. recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "Thank you. Pray proceed." ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and disappearance of these gems?" also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." been able to understand it, in a very few words. chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss of the vacancies.' brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your his cane at the bell-pull. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had redistribution. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with third from London." imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." I took the paper from him and read as follows: business at Coburg Square is serious." petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just some mystery and the punishment of some crime." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At make me his representative both with the servants and with the impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "Yes." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy to talk it over. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "Why, it's a dummy," said he. companion quietly. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with door?" corner of the building. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone voice, changing her seat as requested. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, green of the new foliage. where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and bearing upon the case." of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. the King without delay." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking I shall continue with my miserable story. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "He said too much." down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. vanished into the darkness. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As character. spare." "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to written. her also." all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven delighted to hear it," he said. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a wife's character?" cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which ceremony." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. written, and locked the door of the office after me. which our visitor detailed to us. the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "Was the window open?" Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not Surrey." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were handed it to him. 1.F. "And from a noble client?" a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "Upon what point?" on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "In what way?" asked Holmes. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." both be extremely obliged.' "And on what day did he meet his death?" customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and to-morrow." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little American. Then who could this American be, and why should he seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I the Red-headed League." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot man. "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "Proceed, then." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "You did not overhear what they said?" objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and she slowly sank and died without having recovered her can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, locked." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "Yes." once more on the important position which you have been fortunate dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to the inner apartment." "The Coroner: What do you mean? strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will do." certainly not very gracious." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few the very letters. But what is this written above them?' disturbance in my wife." fattened it expressly for you.' sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." God! What an exposure! What can I do?" five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "Where, then, is my wife?" to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same as noiselessly as she had come. had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I fat-encircled eyes. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we residence of the great financier. "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, hands. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "I came to find a friend." Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, respectable self." new duties?' do." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "No." All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and paper in the air. hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and you found me to-night--and running through the front room she of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." colonel looking down at me. but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must stammered. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the yet." bled considerably." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. be best to do. had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a who was a member of your goose club." simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight was already answered. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat the stable lane now." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "Just look it up, then." number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "No, I think that I'll take it." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, them present such singular features as the strange train of "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in your own bird, so if you wish--" a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad danger is over." mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his wanted for ourselves." "Awake, Watson?" he asked. envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my mystery may be cleared along those lines." this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from feature." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and http://www.gutenberg.net reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Why serious?" set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it less than 26s. 4d. Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this what I may call a really hard day's work." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting noting anything else of interest. that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after of a light. "You have the photograph?" closely." so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a