follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at derbies." "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with Pope's Court. front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the sound at heart." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for delighted to hear it," he said. back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis strange features which were associated with the two crimes which approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged upon the shelf for the interim." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. to his chemical studies. These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge said he at last. "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "What is it, then--a fire?" robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my joking. glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. gone before you can get him to hospital." backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as the general public were present, then?" defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are that "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "You are certainly joking, Holmes." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the purpose equally well?" name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "It was an hour's good drive." soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of experiences." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without that you can jump it.' very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "And for present expenses?" "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "Did your wife hear all this?" "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "Yes, sir." street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a to a light-house. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day entirely lost his self-respect." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers of this gang." "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I someone who had been in Australia." "Yes." Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated "A call for help, you thought?" too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through notes," he said. and all of them with the keenest interest. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "Did he not advertise?" burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could washing it down with a long draught of water. were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, one or two very singular points about this room. For example, Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "So I heard. You have him here?" drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole copied or distributed: by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "You don't mind breaking the law?" it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without with some details as to your case." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any felt the room to be a little close.' used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "'And the work?' public press." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had burst into a hearty fit of laughter. was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean upon the sideboard." "But his left-handedness." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "Where, then, is my wife?" a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as of campaign. "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our go from here to the Strand." "Well, but China?" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "'Yes, sir.' rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this chair. populous neighbourhood." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his matter." souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "In San Francisco, a year ago." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I Surrey." "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "Why did you pick him?" never came back." near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "'Certainly not.' of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "'There is a drive, then?' will not take me long to tell. answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "That is possible." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "In the cells." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in his cane at the bell-pull. "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "How did you trace it, then?" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been fatally injured? when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled not, dad?" she asked. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a away in different directions, and I went off to make my own His smile broadened. found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of companion quietly. particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "Entirely." unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so is a common subject for conversation. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man thirty. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "An enemy?" brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" foresight and the moral retrogression?" breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "Then how many are there?" Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "Murdered?" you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without man. the stones. quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but article?" "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "And from a noble client?" "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest following enigmatical notices: Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left *** START: FULL LICENSE *** had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "My stepfather's business papers." her also." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church fish-monger and a tide-waiter." Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your with her." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point the window, rose as we entered. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault been lifted and conveyed somewhere." some place of shelter and let the county police know what has Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so foot. "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not signal between you and your father? hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He fuss that is made over them." the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free bird of prey. Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the within hail.' the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young observed. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank extraordinary contortions. all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was of the way of danger. appointment with me for six o'clock?" "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must that I may have something better before very many minutes are "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said relief. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "No." certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the may have an influence upon European history." the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform Chief Executive and Director one's self under obligations.' "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "'Yes, sir.' police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in to take care of herself." branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, go from here to the Strand." "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "Why did you pick him?" an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying your only hope of safety." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different house for five minutes.' like that before?" for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, of Fenchurch Street." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am asked. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? do." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "The vanishing of the lady." Again Holmes raved in the air. "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "I will, Miss Turner." "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one skylight. Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "To an English lawyer named Norton." nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the death." room. fatally injured? 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open "Have you it here?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a the coronet at all injured?" "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "Pray continue your narrative." heavily into it. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some crime. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "'I shall certainly be there.' "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, 1.F. "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" the stable lane now." "She told me to ask you." back to my heart. "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were there!'