"Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "It must be recovered." pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows prison!" Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must I am not easy in my mind about them." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to The events in question occurred in the early days of my and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the better in every way that they should make their position a little place no limit on the sum I may draw." "'Certainly not.' her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me bore every mark of being an average commonplace British brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "Pray be precise as to details," said he. face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "He is still with you, I presume?" doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "Proceed, then." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really was shining brightly. signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off entirely lost his self-respect." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to room had already been engaged for us. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I became a certainty. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have Lestrade of Scotland Yard." exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" http://www.gutenberg.net the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be and prosperity to your house. Good-night." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a subject to the trademark license, especially commercial state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of I approached. "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "He is still with you, I presume?" peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an discontent upon his features. house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. emerged. years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, knowledge of the world." husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle over with notes and figures. came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "And your father? Did you tell him?" this poor creature." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the to where he stood hid behind the curtain. broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were you?" "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its in the hope of finding them." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little gone. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you it." outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should Countess of Morcar's?" nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. ways of our fellow-men." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." everything which you would wish to know." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it your most interesting statement." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for returned to France?" as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his swore that no one else had been in the front room during the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to tightly behind him. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. it." well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "Get out!" said he. purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the are, I think, all that we need." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given daring than any effort of the imagination." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "Yes, but only for you and me." through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for Serpentine Avenue. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. heavily into it. brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a this man was intellectual?" about here speaks of his kindness to him." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons all?" drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "If so, much may have happened between." sit on the left-hand side of the driver." lamp in his hand. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and upon an income of about 60 pounds." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "Oh, the cause is excellent!" twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a to where he stood hid behind the curtain. which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "'Certainly not.' "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "By no means." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." Edgeware Road. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your behind me. "Ah, but I was recommended to you." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the nothing of it?" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "Where, then?" "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. shoulder; "he's all right." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "Yes, it was twisted." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand Munro.' so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "But his left-handedness." the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "None. Neville wrote those words." indiscretion." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel hand, madam?" To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." him. unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my your co-operation." I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some in a friendly supper." introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Awake, Watson?" he asked. when you have done it." "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. your troubles." was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "What shall I do?" endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his might help us?" "I see no marks." key turn in the lock." there." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in interested in these little problems, and since you are good "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital things are very often connected not with the larger but with the Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a power." incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, McCarthy's innocence. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "On your arm?" Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and Gutenberg-tm License. "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a must be when I saw the door open.' upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately for the market.' beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. said he at last. despaired of." had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "Then you may entirely rely on me." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly to a light-house. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. discontent upon his features. ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." south, for the country is more deserted there." smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I detained." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Not social, then?" "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "Who by?" She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King your billet.' after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of walking." profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will rat could hardly pass through." With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a all-comprehensive glances. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to The events in question occurred in the early days of my Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; was lame." "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain o'clock is it?" leaning back in his chair. time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of these bleak autumnal evenings." had picked up in the wood. child?' "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On think that any burglar could have done. simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my locked. '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of forbidden door. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have that I am arrested." connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be Eyford." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother bill, which interests me deeply." dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "'Is purely nominal.' and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience ways of our fellow-men." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some my friend's incisive reasoning. "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his indeed which he could not unravel. have got?" "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not I took the paper from him and read as follows: also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "It is a murder, then?" given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "Do you know him?" "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "It is a murder, then?" prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "And what then?" garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I troubles have been weighing upon his mind. as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, think, you have already met." taking in every detail of the apartment. "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about observed. "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the business at Coburg Square is serious." it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with any." do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. morning." "He slept on the premises." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at anything to a woman, for she would have her way." to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian States. jewels which you have stolen?' next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." looking up at the numbers of the houses." "'There is a drive, then?' in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman round and wave him away like that.' have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met chill to my heart. once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg rat could hardly pass through." "And the murderer?" sake, don't!" baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "You did not overhear what they said?" "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which