rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "That is also quite modern," said the lady. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & lost his Christmas dinner." know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling him, that man would not have given me such complete information marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past Eyford at 11:15.' "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "I have seen the police." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" on in his house." august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "You horrify me!" second window is the one that I jumped from." assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I conceal it?" and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his matter over." dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was hard-headed British jury." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." this Miss Turner." Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always threw himself down with his face to the pillow. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one served to weaken the effect. was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "Not particularly." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "And help." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "Was your sister dressed?" husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "It is to him that this trophy belongs." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "You have carte blanche." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his are windows in it, of course?" endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the October 9, 1890. "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "Frequently." "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his country, and eventually married, without anyone having a it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." sentimental considerations in the background which would induce the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled individual and becomes the badge of a society." records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he imbecility!" he cried. "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "Certainly." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Ha! you find it so?" "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would sparkled upon his finger. entirely devoid of interest." "And your father? Did you tell him?" "My photograph." and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." happened." "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which lids now and glanced across at his visitor. remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "And how have you succeeded?" lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the your Highness to the police-station?" and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the entirely devoid of interest." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the whereabouts. while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows to Leatherhead. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is companion quietly. their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." examine." I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought that there was nothing in it, after all." "That is easily got." the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him DAMAGE. it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth will not take me long to tell. next day. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "Very. But will he see it?" invisible to me," I remarked. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must whole matter to your consideration." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Come in!" said he. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "'Yes.' been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "You have carte blanche." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "Thank you. And your address?" dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "Quite so." time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "What! You do not mean bodies?" Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. at my own good fortune. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the 11:15.' now. It seems that there had been some informality about their slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the little adventures." Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, disturbance in my wife." the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." side. "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very some city in a dream. "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of look upon these things in a different way." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "None. Neville wrote those words." the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." to arrive at through this?" plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle gives a meaning to it." what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was own family. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "Then, as to money?" from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the "Perhaps we may make them less so." "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons may never be exposed to such a temptation." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "My dear Holmes!" misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. unprecedented a position." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." clang of the bell. smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "I am in hopes that she does." "'About the same.' "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend an introduction to him?" Pope's Court, Fleet Street." crime." the dangers which encompass me." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen me upon any point which I do not make clear." "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is since then to throw any light upon what became of him." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. bears upon the case?" return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do may have an influence upon European history." justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling felt?" crime." in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "He is dead," cried several voices. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was the general public were present, then?" his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "But I have heard all that you have heard." subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "It is his hat." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, locked." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "You are hungry," I remarked. defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more married her." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs interested in these little problems, and since you are good it right.' Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular wife's character?" "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, delighted to hear it," he said. upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "'No, I know no one in these parts.' the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in fishes. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately respectable self." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "You have carte blanche." "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several once more to my work. held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small if I call to-morrow?" safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. case before our client came into the room." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter of the one which your family is now devouring." arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "I was mad--insane." legal crime." Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "Do you go out much in society?" "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the opened a pocket-book and took out a note. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "I was mad--insane." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "When did she vanish, then?" Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored eat it." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." will take you up to see the machine.' dead, shall be safe with us." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It your sleep?' one which it was hard to resist. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "But he might be a bachelor." "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "Dirty?" wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his may never be exposed to such a temptation." "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the head. So long, then!" the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the station." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "There are none." existence." could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "I think it very unlikely." into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a is worth.' You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be,