connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." mystery!" passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "One of the highest in England." golden eyeglasses. you in your example." without success. At last the little money which I had saved began sake, don't!" "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive I took the paper from him and read as follows: had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set eat it." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a do." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "Deserted you?" year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent any more." professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his up this clue while it is still hot." "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little quickly through a disagreeable task. "Entirely." lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "How about poison?" gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way felt?" clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture plantation.' "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then said he. "I cannot imagine." written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Yes." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet that threaten you." Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband status with the IRS. detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, Clair, of Lee." fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with arrested. You then--" about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us better in every way that they should make their position a little surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. the Assizes." "I cannot tell." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words again before evening." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of to affect your life." "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for question," said Holmes, smiling. while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "What, then?" right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE matter." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "'Which dealer's?' zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest your equipment. "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "Pray do so." enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted empty. to a light-house. possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and place no limit on the sum I may draw." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual His name is Francis Prosper." it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "From his hat?" the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some not as remarkable as your advertisement." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "The best possible." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," jewels which you have stolen?' mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "Yes, sir." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "But how?" "Witness: I must still refuse. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the take the flies, but not before." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for bird I ate is country bred." "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple there when the Rucastles went away." "That was it, sir." absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It never will be, entirely cleared up. Lee, in the county of Kent." and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the prison!" already referred to. went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "Not in the least." clang of the bell. "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the heavily into it. again." "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must arrested. You then--" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "My stepfather's business papers." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily was keenly on my guard against him. "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or desk. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous have got?" Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "You saw the ventilator, too?" "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, arrangements." meant it for the best. "And how in the world did you find them?" brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "That also I could fathom." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "Yes, it was twisted." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward house for five minutes.' entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself not as remarkable as your advertisement." "The murder was done with it." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come when you have done it." "Then I do not see the point." "And on what day did he meet his death?" upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "Which surely he restored to their owner?" death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "'I am sure that I do not know.' then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at your troubles." criminal. We have already had experience of such." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been own family. electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "And help." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the overpowering excitement and concern. there has been an enclosure here!" he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "I would give my fortune to have them back." "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It the morning and make my own way in the world.' "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. impression behind it as though a window had gently closed cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable which it had come upon my father." it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and believe that I should never have any practice at all. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is her also." chamber." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had room?" was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not attention." knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their been shamefully used." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "From his hat?" and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of read over the extraordinary announcement. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and fluttered off among the others. demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "'Yes.' "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George be sorry for having acted so harshly." In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "Yes, it would be as well." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this to tackle the facts." "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "The Coroner: What do you mean? of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "Certainly." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "What?" business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary recover the gem." woven round him. "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it his face. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some were wasted." ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had there was no need for father to know." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "What do you mean?" was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few delirious. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, the bottom.' "Stolen, then." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "Indeed! Whose, then?" the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "What?" "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "Pray continue your narrative." "Imitated." seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my that I can to serve you." laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, delighted to hear it," he said. moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I morning." "I have my revolver," said I. business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was them present such singular features as the strange train of "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' Where does the thing come from?' Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "But we can't all be." "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "My private note-paper." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone spare." "But she will refuse." the devil!" "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "A client, then?" without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely official police." "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup spare." advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done matters immensely." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." happened." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "VIOLET HUNTER." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in footfalls from the street. yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of with some details as to your case." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy asked with his eyes open. and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down all-comprehensive glances. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for