For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which round and wave him away like that.' however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "Where, indeed?" and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered the little opening for the ventilator is." "'Very good.' and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for persecution?" you came in." Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "Well." "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "Yes." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the have one." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were despair." crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "'Yes, sir.' "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out British peeress.'" "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a things are very often connected not with the larger but with the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with yet." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "I am armed." grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and chambers. exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" everything which you would wish to know." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, official police." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "But you have hopes?" protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it washing it down with a long draught of water. "Dirty?" the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it unprofitable." went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "Not in a good cause." "No, finished." room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his particular state visit http://pglaf.org this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "To the police?" spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. all?" partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the Again Holmes raved in the air. Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." before, for it was considerably after midnight. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should papers must be those that are destroyed.' "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "Always." so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as the one as in the other." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "I don't believe it." open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a carpenter." which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had the night.' liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something delighted to hear it," he said. be. and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to jewels which you have stolen?' it were putty." near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible it were putty." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped corner of the building. cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted of fine shops and stately business premises that they really matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" families. Now for the facts. advice." "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "Your presence might be invaluable." "9th. McCauley cleared. occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming outside." "What is it?" protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind mysterious business." "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "I saw her in conversation with her maid." He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "What then?" himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and address. time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary direction." she used." electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "'And what salary do you ask?' unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "I say it is." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to awkward doing business with an alias." not personally threatened." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in his forehead." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "Game for a morning drive?" "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the ventilator." insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by read it out to me." "The Coroner: What do you mean? "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say the ceiling. "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our sound at heart." window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the definite end. to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert evidence," I remarked. been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention vanished into the darkness. girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my me where it went to?" despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat helping a boy to put up the shutters. drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been bed dies. Does not that strike you?" was feeling which was the fattest.' "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far extraordinary contortions. "Nothing." shaken than I had ever seen him. "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "Certainly." I have it here in my museum." blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at you want, then?' such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "In heaven's name, what for?" and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two legal crime." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can get her out of the way." "I will try. What is it?" the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a His smile broadened. possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "I will get her to show me." excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing there in twenty minutes." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." to his chemical studies. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a into the room. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not out." "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you my secret was safe in his possession. notes," he said. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "I was mad--insane." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her orange pips. the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The upon the shelf for the interim." "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who directly by questioning you." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "I am all attention, madam." and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "On Monday." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. main points of my analysis." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which way in." beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his which we had just quitted. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the forebodings. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that light and attacked it." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "Then you may be so with me." stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" the matter?" quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most it right.' which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive you." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some in his hands." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then of campaign. to arrive at through this?" must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "Pray do so." can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such empty. just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." only touch the interest." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case "Witness: Nothing definite. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in comes from the middle window." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "What! You do not mean bodies?" "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time and put his glass in his pocket. "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this might help us?" might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "So I am. Very much so." think you a quite exceptional woman." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for you." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "Precisely so. But how--" upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "'Certainly,' I answered. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. make me his representative both with the servants and with the "Upon what point?" should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest hurried by. bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "What! a murderous attack?" see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our you." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "No. What a strange idea!" in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "Yes, from Horsham." is four-and-twenty." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "And how have you succeeded?" some terrible trap for her." an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in and the whole place is in a blaze." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Have you her photograph?" "What of the rat, then?" have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who straightened it out again. reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "I think that it is very probable." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor keep the flames under. your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." kindly on the shoulder. cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her fluttered off among the others. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become nice household for a young lady." whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! main points of my analysis." he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "You have the photograph?" showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "'You cannot say what it was?' "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "Can I be of assistance?" "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I characteristics, but those are the more obvious." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" derbies." enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "Then I shall certainly come." "'As governess?' my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." could go. errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking been able to understand it, in a very few words. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." this man was intellectual?" "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "Certainly." sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my cause to be." where she found matters as described by the last witness. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms.