breakfast and whispered something to her husband. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I gone. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my your Highness to the police-station?" the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "What office?" bed dies. Does not that strike you?" of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who she used." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is to-night." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Absolutely none." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he pressing in one house as in another. The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight presented more singular features than that which was associated away to you." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "No more words. Get out!" "Was she in good spirits?" He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." the matter." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in these bleak autumnal evenings." immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Well." "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. was lame." the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open must compliment you." civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold strong reason behind." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "Was he the only applicant?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. thought that she would have been so carried away." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about she might be summoned. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his woman." as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. forbidden door. "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I his eyes and forehead. actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "It's nothing of the kind." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the to his chemical studies. style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. room. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the himself to tell his story. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Where, indeed?" Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "Of what?" is worth.' "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just some terrible trap for her." off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "He is dead," cried several voices. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "Can I be of assistance?" letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the the matter?" brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "Whose house is it?" to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I silent! Oh, he will be silent!' nonsense.' season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project the general public were present, then?" offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up when your master had gone out." "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not once more to my work. "Where is it, then?" his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair prisoner's face. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself train from Paddington which would bring you there at about had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "Pray be precise as to details," said he. flock.' assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "Breckinridge is his name." from you?" "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "Witness: It was. "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "Pray do so." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary business came to an end." for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study feature." were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "My private note-paper." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far photograph?" should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, dramatic, in fact." trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His gone. We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the whether it answered to the description of any of their get her out of the way." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, excitement. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried copied or distributed: them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" touch that coronet?' offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to an introduction to him?" given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "Pray do so." only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the putting in the horse. course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "A confidential servant?" which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point suddenly upon us." burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack if she died from some sudden fright." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. business." round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." crime." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of returning from some small jollification and was making his way how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "Why, what do you mean?" detained." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage rooms." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note not interfere, come what may. You understand?" stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it here." the coroner come to?" fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "You are hungry," I remarked. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near Leave Paddington by the 11:15." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong she used." have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. minor matters until to-morrow." enter Dr. Roylott's room." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, to have that photograph." promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. out." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who cause to be." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little Holmes. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook of your young ladies.' standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, me what he had done with the three missing stones. "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt compunction about shooting them down." "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, that there was nothing in it, after all." minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in very morning of my second wedding." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, my friend's incisive reasoning. go--none." weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a manager. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five not, dad?" she asked. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, papers." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments meant it for the best. "Not particularly." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." then?" "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently must compliment you." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "Did you become engaged then?" why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving you in your example." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "You did not overhear what they said?" time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, me upon any point which I do not make clear." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Where does the thing come from?' himself. suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us characteristics, but those are the more obvious." son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought next day. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and a good hundred miles off by now." "Come in!" said he. "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for one's self under obligations.' Gutenberg-tm License. Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "Never." my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as affair. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our instincts rose up against that laugh. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, knowledge of the world." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own mystery may be cleared along those lines." moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our will be renamed. pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from think that he is innocent?" after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could our word." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to the matter." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into in the hope of finding them." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "Well?" "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "An accident, I presume?" had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this look dissatisfied." "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the becomes even more simple." would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure father's young wife. "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all once more. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and beg that you will break it off." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, outside." the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which felt?" It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." disturbance in my wife." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon I have it here in my museum." on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "To an end?" my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding questioning and rather startled gaze. writer." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "It is very clear." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who which was all perfectly true. populous neighbourhood." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful quickly through a disagreeable task. "Then I shall certainly come." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are said he. "Ha! you find it so?" Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his shag which I had seen upon the previous night. every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "A client, then?" he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "Absolutely?" wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered one else, I think." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "That you are never beaten." warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "What then?" a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office,