and the colonel ushered me in. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "Yes." starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the standing smiling on the door-step. colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom opportunities to fix the problem. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in I leave." wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to upon a handsome competence. suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and of the way of danger. "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "Why serious?" faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Was there a secret marriage?" and I shall be with you presently." "Then, how do you know?" o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I Young McCarthy must be got off, however." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "I will not look." "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with round with crates and massive boxes. "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof or in danger--" reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and indeed which he could not unravel. "'I am sure if I had known--' "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Who was the criminal, then?" "Where, then, is my wife?" "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal several quiet little villages up there." and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "'A dozen yards or so.' quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any Eyford." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, Henry Baker is a member." "And for present expenses?" once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I friend's singular character. have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's impression behind it as though a window had gently closed Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend the so-precious time, but come!' ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt system of imprisonment?" "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "Awake, Watson?" he asked. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said disturbance in my wife." "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very or other trace. But how on earth--" "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "That is easily got." you in your example." "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are bears upon the case?" thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges a very grave face. dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as the tragedy. in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously outsides of the windows. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "No legal papers or certificates?" Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "Why serious?" ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination and the church but not where the lady lived." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "And the murderer?" a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round call the police, let the police find what they can.' Holmes. case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' threw himself down with his face to the pillow. what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with in a very precise fashion." wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, matters immensely." back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a persecution?" envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "'Yes, I promise.' very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "What I expected to see." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you Sutherland. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. Chief Executive and Director Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you where she found matters as described by the last witness. to-night?' partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My breakfast?" you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your bears upon the case?" and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, my room." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as III. fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present orange pips. laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, of the one which your family is now devouring." "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "Was your sister dressed?" "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a to have that photograph." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "No." absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have wedding?" incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are if she died from some sudden fright." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "He slept on the premises." garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, indiscretion." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "By train from Waterloo." "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my away in different directions, and I went off to make my own pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to interests were the same as his." dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "And you thought he was pulled back?" "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. question you as to those details which seem to me to be most from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "And it is--" hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her young Openshaw's." the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the families. Now for the facts. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and unprecedented a position." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a during which he might have communicated with his friend the out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after the devil!" why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "You forget that I know nothing about it." "'Then let me do so?' "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning "'Where could I find him?' I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must kindly on the shoulder. "She showed me, as I told you she would." solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I place no limit on the sum I may draw." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no searched, without anything being found which could incriminate they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You you do it in twenty minutes!' disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the one or two very singular points about this room. For example, before the coroner and the police-court." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "The vanishing of the lady." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading towards the blaze. afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Game for a morning drive?" go from here to the Strand." while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he the morning and make my own way in the world.' very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "Never." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is letters?" like gravel from a pit.' something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "It is very clear." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." Have you good authority for what you say?" "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I fat-encircled eyes. there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is be best to do. I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "Where, then?" narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "The King of Scandinavia." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "What! You do not mean bodies?" "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." from the brougham. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "Yes." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, towards the blaze. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time interests were the same as his." "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the and inquire as to the address." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he tell them apart.' face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own acquaintance?" other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in of his shoulders. civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "But how will you look?" "'Yes, sir.' Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with the coronet in his hands?" that you saw all that I did." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day unkempt, staring out at me. "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or night.' said he. because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for and no precautions can guard against." honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. appeared upon the scene." full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an "I have seen the police." lectures into a series of tales." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. know all about it," he snarled. remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "That is unusual in a young girl." were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "Here?" he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "He might." "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man coroner's jury." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. over with notes and figures. "'A dozen yards or so.' delighted to hear it," he said. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a yards of it?' petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs photograph?" Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." status with the IRS. following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." is worth.' the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is