too. "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. standing smiling on the door-step. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "A greater distance to travel." "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "Get out!" said he. bonnet, and went out." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. You can understand that this register and diary may implicate silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money back alive. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to was a loud and authoritative tap. fishes. an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw have had none more fantastic than this." at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "You forget that I know nothing about it." McCarthy." rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "Ah!" request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' never to learn it at all." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "His face fell immediately. sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of bonnet, and went out." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "He disappeared so suddenly." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the made his money." forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It unprofitable." managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden that there was nothing in it, after all." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "I say it is." Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the outside. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited of them has the shutters up.' taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity charged with?" were new raised from a basin. "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. will he say when he returns?" the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a that you can jump it.' Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that "It is to him that this trophy belongs." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," Literary Archive Foundation conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "By no means." exactly what you advise." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more way in." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on heavy and sharp instrument." "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, could not have written that. It is the German who is so "And I say east," said my patient. Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." business." "Will you go?" there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of lectures into a series of tales." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of along the entire front of the house, with three long windows conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the opportunities to fix the problem. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "I should be immensely obliged to you." call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was nonsense.' know what is wrong with it.' absolutely follow my advice in every respect." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "'Certainly,' I answered. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable bird of prey. yet." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you was the fact that his father should, according to his account, which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw Eyford at 11:15.' this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have bird I ate is country bred." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress yourselves in at night?" also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three entirely devoid of interest." collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "I say that I have solved it." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the derbies." scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. three of the beryls in it, was missing. them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "And how did you verify them?" this remarkable episode. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "'Certainly,' I answered. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "But you can know nothing of this?" "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend man. yet." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, an introduction to him?" some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "Why did you beat the pavement?" the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "No." "How did he come?" here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she in the hope of finding them." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "'As governess?' "What is it, then--a fire?" you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "Nearly eleven." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of in a friendly supper." for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., bill, which interests me deeply." "Not in the least." and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "Do you know him?" got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into could gather together that I was able to avert another public unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the to surprise her." Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his morning." middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "My photograph." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' Have you good authority for what you say?" the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be matters immensely." beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned fasten all the windows?" name is different." him nearly every evening." public press." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own heavy and sharp instrument." strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "Frequently." after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg opened the door, and slipped through. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I corner of the building. profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "Of Friday, June 19th." "Here?" have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "How did he come?" allusion to a rat. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "And did you observe any change in her then?" "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. that you can jump it.' stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the one's self under obligations.' "But I have heard all that you have heard." judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you the coronet in his hands?" "And I say east," said my patient. "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she more terrible than the truth. appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having recover the gem." not use it unless it is absolutely needed." front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "And for present expenses?" know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "'Then let me do so?' allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one Does that suggest anything?" body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently meant it for the best. "I have solved it." Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I main points of my analysis." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed are windows in it, of course?" my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "I promise," said Holmes. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "'Where to?' "Seven!" I answered. "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as o'clock is it?" "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a promised to bring home. "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock details should find their way into the papers. Inspector twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I go back?" leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" what I may call a really hard day's work." "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the during that time.' "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his what these perils are?" position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "And why?" yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the him. in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out least a most suspicious remark." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "How on earth--" years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "I am in hopes that she does." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "An enemy?" "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone once more. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though will he say when he returns?" "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. you." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "It is very kind of you." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window know all about it," he snarled. was a lad." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The spark where all is dark to me." the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens breakfast." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. have I gained?" papers on the sundial.'" a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a go--none." "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "The murder was done with it." I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found system of imprisonment?" "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but always that they were such commands as a lady might with "But what will you do?" "In which, sir?" "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to Watson," he said cordially. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did photograph?" the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy 'please.'" end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little