discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. sofa. This way, please!" "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you humiliation." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary look upon these things in a different way." thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. and the colonel ushered me in. affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know allusion to a rat. window when the police appeared." these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge Edgeware Road. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door said I. he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I within hail.' very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am that you can jump it.' surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "And I to find an enemy." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words kind enough to tell me what I should do." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question are, I think, all that we need." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to did not hear it also.' "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure bedroom door." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. easy-going way." the tragedy. Mrs. Toller serenely. "No, I think that I'll take it." midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "He said too much." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "And it is--" of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "'I have heard so.' fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "He is still with you, I presume?" examine." recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, started for the Temple to see my husband. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me weary and pale-looking. and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "And when will you call?" that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a to that open window." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "'Yes.' was a lad." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't cause to be." anything to do with the matter?" at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "Absolutely?" "'Stolen!' he cried. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my dead, shall be safe with us." His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can subject to the trademark license, especially commercial cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by London for the present?" "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" at my own good fortune. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, remarked. after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the which I could not give. He asked for Alice. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales useful material for showing traces. The double line a little every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own to you." never came back." and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as started for the Temple to see my husband. the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "Seven!" I answered. these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of front of me. where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the happened." endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole unclasping of his long thin hands. morning." and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid in darkness. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "Dirty?" smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well any little problem which you may submit to me." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the child?' have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear the stones. shall not find me ungrateful." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a notes," he said. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the coroner's jury." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "One of his hands." which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "But you were on a friendly footing?" While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands "How many? I don't know." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect might help us?" squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks desk. trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was you give your casting vote to?" "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The is four-and-twenty." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges stammered. something of him before." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, may never be exposed to such a temptation." ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "Precisely." of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town legal crime." your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "'It is locked up,' I answered. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view troubles have been weighing upon his mind. individual and becomes the badge of a society." "And the cigar-holder?" the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon as he remarks, very much against the son." may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. crime." this poor creature." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "'Never,' said I. directly by questioning you." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He suspect him." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies Holmes rather sternly. It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a of the way of danger. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar papers on the sundial.'" in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and held up the lantern and gazed about him. "Yes, it was twisted." really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "Yesterday." his face which made him a very different person to the round, he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the there." one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a served to weaken the effect. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as seem to you to be relevant or not." despaired of." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was What do you deduce from it?" few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "What! a murderous attack?" her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "Yes, certainly." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "It came here." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "But she could not love him." Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm morning." Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "And you can do nothing until then?" travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off read it out to me." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were go--none." depend upon your compliance." research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do depend upon your compliance." drawing your inferences." down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "I cannot say that I have." man. I know him from the photograph." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the the station." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." observed. ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." go from here to the Strand." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "Will you go?" their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" wedding?" "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, taking in every detail of the apartment. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "I should be immensely obliged to you." the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an good for you to do.' examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, into the room. breakfast." among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "'How far from the body?' "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Very. But will he see it?" was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "On Monday." "'Which dealer's?' three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. appointment with me for six o'clock?" "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this I was concerned in it." "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said written. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "It was a confession," I ejaculated. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "It is very clear." here." "And I say east," said my patient. no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "Then you may entirely rely on me." "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in open." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs closely." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for guilty parties." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "My Mary? Impossible!" you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. if she died from some sudden fright." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and stood on the top of it. and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. reach." his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened way: kind enough to tell me what I should do." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, both be extremely obliged.' suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. over part of the map. "What do you read?" "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "What! You do not mean bodies?" ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged little trying to do so much typewriting?" "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "Won't it ring?" address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our bed dies. Does not that strike you?" sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Yes, they were peculiar boots." colonel looking down at me. master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know