from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and During two years I have had three consultations and one small that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "How about poison?" heavily into it. your equipment. "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in chance." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the meant it for the best. "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this which I could not give. He asked for Alice. not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, upon the sideboard." "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly occupations.' days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here that I am arrested." "'Yes, I promise.' home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest interested in these little problems, and since you are good one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate that?' awaited us upon the table. are, and they are waiting for us." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover affair. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though knowledge of the world." "A client, then?" overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "Perfectly so." than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "So it appears." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry this unhappy family?" a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" again." said Mr. Holder. "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his and wait." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a I. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were society." "No." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the records." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. threw himself down with his face to the pillow. I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek test if we have an answer to our advertisement." human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife yet." "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural weigh very heavily upon my conscience." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in one of them." characteristics, but those are the more obvious." he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. of." reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "My photograph." not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "And you can do nothing until then?" James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. during the last few years, and there are many noble families to of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question do you make of it all?" "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. the coronet in his hands?" note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "Perhaps we may make them less so." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did compunction about shooting them down." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal legal crime." "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this seen the man in the road." happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from late!' Project Gutenberg-tm works. with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view present strange and interesting features that it is no easy chambers. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "Very truly yours, had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "So it appears." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip security.' be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "To the police?" His name is Francis Prosper." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "A call for help, you thought?" police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting Eyford at 11:15.' "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret photograph?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. to have that photograph." thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the *** START: FULL LICENSE *** homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon and glanced through. face and glided from the room. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "I will try. What is it?" "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to it. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head the devil!" "Dark enough and sinister enough." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon States. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "My stepfather's business papers." "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the must be when I saw the door open.' Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "How did that help you?" exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to off." but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "Dirty?" "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea hopeless attempt at recovering them." "Did he not advertise?" reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a him!" could gather together that I was able to avert another public annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "I would pay ten." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone Doctor, of the paper and the date." call the police, let the police find what they can.' When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "None. Neville wrote those words." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." introspective fashion. sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" observed. the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "You horrify me!" slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached face and glided from the room. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Yes, certainly." this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a of them has the shutters up.' Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be whereabouts. out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love that you wished to speak to me?' every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a know that the truth is known." bled considerably." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some which it had come upon my father." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "My stepfather's business papers." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and emerged. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice your most interesting statement." "Who by?" "Here?" such attractions and accomplishments?' "'It is locked up,' I answered. and that he would see to anything that turned up. and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a other means.' "None." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "By train from Waterloo." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "That was it, sir." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two ourselves in the office." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I amused." dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the of Fenchurch Street." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." I shall continue with my miserable story. murdered man." little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "So I am. Very much so." figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "Yes?" flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can a monotonous occupation." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the habit of advancing money.' question," said Holmes, smiling. gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will "'No, I know no one in these parts.' 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the purpose of examination. respectable self." "And why?" "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to to-night's adventure." "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul there is a decided draught." Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "'Very good.' companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "Do you know him?" chamber." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." get her out of the way." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which have I gained?" you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "What then?" you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. figure." "To an end?" Does that suggest anything?" "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "I answered that I had not. "Not him." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no some terrible trap for her." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just and I shall be with you presently." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." arrangements." 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which gentleman's clothes. "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "Breckinridge is his name." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "No, finished." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" said he. "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let a suggestive one." a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle key turn in the lock." Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Did your wife hear all this?" "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, arms and began to sob in a high treble key. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "I will, Miss Turner." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty eavesdroppers?' "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her which should have the effect of calling the attention of the said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a locked. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday were wasted." Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well introspective fashion. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. rat could hardly pass through." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "Pray let us have it, for all that." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility this as likely?" any little problem which you may submit to me." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre