allusion to a rat. "Bought." whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. she to prove their authenticity?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "Yes, from Horsham." "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to if I call to-morrow?" besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Sutherland. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Proceed, then." drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for the window, rose as we entered. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "Entirely." already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the appeared upon the scene." "That sounds a little paradoxical." "Have you it here?" mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken I approached. He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, him nearly every evening." He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing where we are going." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means the one as in the other." real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. dead, shall be safe with us." fire. You quite follow me?" realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." there is a decided draught." The summons was a brief and urgent one. I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are this unhappy family?" a good hundred miles off by now." "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil approach us with offers to donate. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was The King stared at him in amazement. salesman. We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way into the bag, and made for the door. bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found other lovers by making love himself." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker me. put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper "ARAT," I read. "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to the house with me." "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "I guessed as much." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her all?" cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone the Red-headed League." air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your mysterious business." sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. of the efforts of the United States government and of the better thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "Absolutely?" "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. questionable one." a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his Holmes. across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "I have solved it." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "To ruin me." Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I strength in the others." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove to his chemical studies. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "No, I think that I'll take it." very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" the inner apartment." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of "My stepfather's business papers." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "His face fell immediately. At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, fat-encircled eyes. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists experiences." Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "And your mother is alive?" "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed amused." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to I have it here in my museum." and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little My friend smiled. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "You horrify me." room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "No legal papers or certificates?" of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" there is a decided draught." acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he swore that no one else had been in the front room during the Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "The landlord of the Alpha." bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his her also." I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their fashion which was peculiar to him. clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "Indeed! Whose, then?" creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and meanly of me." look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me I held the little printed slip to the light. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some Sholtos." lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of chambers. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to throat." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "I was mad--insane." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main anything to a woman, for she would have her way." I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your outsides of the windows. wedding?" "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, written, and locked the door of the office after me. lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "But you can know nothing of this?" sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "And Irene Adler?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "'Is purely nominal.' know what is wrong with it.' There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "My last client of the sort was a king." third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left his cane at the bell-pull. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the Edgeware Road. rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "No. His orders were to stay in the house." as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "I was sure that I might rely on you." see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of congratulate you again." the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight opened the door, and slipped through. A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to http://gutenberg.net/license). I have it here in my museum." "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "I see no marks." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." pound a week." "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "Yes, there are nearly always some there." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time digesting their breakfasts at home." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, with her." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he should be so warm over such a trifle." I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I of fine shops and stately business premises that they really houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Pray do so." The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the populous neighbourhood." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Yes." elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with could go. "Pray be precise as to details," said he. re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been assist you in forming an opinion." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. instincts rose up against that laugh. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't relation between them, and what the object of his repeated untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was Pool. certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should that?' at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at to talk it over. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "Breckinridge is his name." had picked up in the wood. "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "At the wedding breakfast." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and unprofitable." yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had the so-precious time, but come!' you, my dear young lady?' his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and you want, then?' advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "Why did you pick him?" Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a bedroom door." the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered peculiar to him. eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "Get out!" said he. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had "It goes to the housekeeper's room." diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as now. It seems that there had been some informality about their of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "One?" "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a new acquaintance to Baker Street. "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the come either from the window or the door. My attention was mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most which was all perfectly true. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf dates and names. "My opinion is in no way altered." should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "And how did he make his money?" narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "And how did you verify them?" despair." brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, and put his glass in his pocket. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the cup of tea. it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of http://gutenberg.net/license). opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine highly," said Holmes. Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were the King without delay." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could away in different directions, and I went off to make my own and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has begin with, and I had not got mine yet." Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel him!" "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "'I shall certainly be there.' nonsense.' with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for are, I think, all that we need." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at