"No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." was shining brightly. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "What do you mean?" to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "I answered that I had not. There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and his face which made him a very different person to the round, this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent very peculiar words of the dying woman?" conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I in my life." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "I will try. What is it?" just called myself is not exactly my own." like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. look dissatisfied." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "You have the photograph?" problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on strength in the others." "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the anything to do with the matter?" mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, washing it down with a long draught of water. house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it in his power. at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and not within a twentieth part of the market price." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "What I expected to see." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen criminal. We have already had experience of such." down. constraint." total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "'What, the red-headed man?' "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and the bed, and you in that chair." about. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "Come in!" said Holmes. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these I held the little printed slip to the light. husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Then I am your man." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the congratulate you again." "And I say east," said my patient. of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting silent! Oh, he will be silent!' written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "You are certainly joking, Holmes." observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen quickly through a disagreeable task. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our humiliation." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "By no means." what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and was feeling which was the fattest.' "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the is now desirous of getting those letters back." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "And you thought he was pulled back?" presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the forbidden door. "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs Arthur Conan Doyle this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, taking in every detail of the apartment. the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "How often?" abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "I cannot as yet see any connection." "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and putting in the horse. "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the friend's singular character. information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "I am sure." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "I don't say that. Perhaps." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." carriage. It was a chestnut." come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "'No, I know no one in these parts.' intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." empty. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock Heh?' forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "My dear Holmes!" "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker shag which I had seen upon the previous night. ventilator." time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "And the murderer?" "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "'What, the red-headed man?' Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "My opinion is in no way altered." depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "You don't mind breaking the law?" McCarthy." "Which surely he restored to their owner?" without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "What?" the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far that I am arrested." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on that he has suffered." minor matters until to-morrow." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works "No, thank goodness, she did not." have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "Will you bet, then?" shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My became a certainty. "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "How can you tell that?" "Awake, Watson?" he asked. about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the Holmes rather sternly. "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in floor. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not ways including including checks, online payments and credit card given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "One of the highest in England." to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Why serious?" look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have what do you think they found in the pockets?" ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary man. I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended place of silver." standing smiling on the door-step. cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips footfalls from the street. lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "But of what society?" of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day later, upon the night of May 2nd." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I future lives." here." time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She characteristics, but those are the more obvious." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "Yesterday." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A present." "It is his hat." done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is copied or distributed: "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and and all of them with the keenest interest. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project been lifted and conveyed somewhere." unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. DAMAGE. "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "If so, much may have happened between." "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ the tragedy. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that have one." "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in forecastle of an emigrant ship. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre wedding?" "None." Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "Pray continue your narrative." Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely there has been an enclosure here!" I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was with her." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which if only as a check to my own memory." heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, the iron safe, which he closed upon it. and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and Holmes' face clouded over. before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "The knees of his trousers." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the you came in." that?' "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to and effective." Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and sufficient punishment." eat it." their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while to me. "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "And from a noble client?" master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is room. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "BALLARAT." brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, the child." the best of training." "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to noting anything else of interest. mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, this man was intellectual?" this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me so.' earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "I see no marks." deduce something from that?" *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "I promise," said Holmes. in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away never came back." instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a characteristics, but those are the more obvious." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close when you have done it." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such formed some opinion?" which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any entirely lost his self-respect." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "In San Francisco, a year ago." "And what then?" wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of said he at last. bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen that you can jump it.' "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did Sutherland. see a sister of mine apply for." heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "And when will you call?" he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two passage and a tap at the door. of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "Precisely." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, the child." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "I am sure." fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would figure." "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. I am not easy in my mind about them." ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Entirely." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about DISSOLVED. "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though details." drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "I will not look." "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother