"BALLARAT." had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I "Who was the criminal, then?" to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass stalked out of the room. where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the October 9, 1890. when your master had gone out." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "In San Francisco, a year ago." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, where we are going." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may http://www.gutenberg.net "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "Perhaps I have." cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "At half-wages, in fact." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "And leave your case unfinished?" "You forget that I know nothing about it." daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I said I. "How on earth--" previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the go from here to the Strand." he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been instituted." of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "Really! You surprise me." I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after entirely lost his self-respect." Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are prepare for the new role I have to play." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "If so, much may have happened between." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "'Yes, sir.' matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. excitement. short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was open." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously call it cruel." process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a rooms." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, a little more before I quite committed myself. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the distance from the station, and there we found the young lady above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed relation between them, and what the object of his repeated the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There geese which you supplied to the Alpha." from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." "It is his hat." "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you recall any case within my experience which looked at the first I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, your co-operation." "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress that you can jump it.' "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful the inquest, and which are worth considering." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to even so self-evident a thing as that." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "I cannot as yet see any connection." hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest about. weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "Then the page we have seen--" "Murdered?" should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "Get out!" said he. Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for sentimental considerations in the background which would induce nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now placed his cuttings. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased orange pips. "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his him. ago." incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "Witness: I must still refuse. "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. tail." work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can national property. I was determined that the law should have its possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the rose-bushes. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out had no one to advise her at such a crisis." though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "I cannot think." impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had rat could hardly pass through." my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to congratulate you again." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "'What, the red-headed man?' with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with there when the Rucastles went away." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Of what day?" laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others ready to-morrow?' "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' During two years I have had three consultations and one small "One of the highest in England." bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face recall any case within my experience which looked at the first not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." the running down." his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. meant it for the best. "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: in my life." "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "'What, the red-headed man?' "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" there is a decided draught." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds that I can to serve you." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was system of imprisonment?" the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" companion imperturbably. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "'Oh, no.' "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE society." "And for present expenses?" engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I http://gutenberg.net/license). We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be tassel actually lying upon the pillow. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly empty. but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "9th. McCauley cleared. gives a meaning to it." "Proceed, then." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the despair." flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way Holmes' thin, eager face. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. matter." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "She will not sell." that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "To an end?" "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we said he. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it foresight and the moral retrogression?" the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to "I was mad--insane." the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project appeal." desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you yards of it?' undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "What, then?" clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, what do you think they found in the pockets?" spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of seem to you to be relevant or not." "Certainly, madam." About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered Project Gutenberg-tm works. "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "And who is her maid?" the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back reach." other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in you?" in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that him to be an active member of the medical profession." definite end. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "I warn you that they are very incomplete." Lee, in the county of Kent." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an place, I think that there is good ground to think that the admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "Yes." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You man. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the absorbing." a room. "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I Arthur Conan Doyle other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I handed it to him. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very I held the little printed slip to the light. for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "Where, then?" "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Dirty?" fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, tassel actually lying upon the pillow. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "But what will you do?" "I will, Miss Turner." "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be place of silver." now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "One?" "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. begin with, and I had not got mine yet." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that anything to a woman, for she would have her way." rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were very peculiar words of the dying woman?" business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head about. written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Precisely so. But how--" "How do you know, then?" permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations less than 26s. 4d. My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into own family. comes from the middle window." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "No legal papers or certificates?" all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had with you?" passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of it." a good hundred miles off by now." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a awaited us upon the table. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "She walked into the breakfast-room." credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "Pray let us have it, for all that." acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is ventilator." doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider than to us. Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and extraordinary contortions. unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little forehead. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." stammered. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to neither fascinating nor artistic." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you is entirely a question of barometric pressure." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "I should like to see him very much." "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and chill to my heart. now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his like that before?" with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "Was there a secret marriage?" "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the just called myself is not exactly my own." his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to troubles have been weighing upon his mind. it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "Dark enough and sinister enough." "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new His smile broadened. "That is easily got." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do the little opening for the ventilator is." undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "I promise," said Holmes. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both together. Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or prove to be little relation between the different incidents of silent! Oh, he will be silent!' partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City point our research must commence, and we will begin it by Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence