true." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "I am armed." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on secret." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "No, finished." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "Will you go?" paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our in him." silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "How did that help you?" to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker kind enough to tell me what I should do." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "You horrify me." I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." affection." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the had formerly been in part my own. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & dramatic, in fact." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the gigantic client. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "A greater distance to travel." It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after colour had been driven from his face. pressing in one house as in another. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." head. So long, then!" look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "Who by?" explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "How did you deduce the select?" lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been the side-table." drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when Chief Executive and Director into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly your own bird, so if you wish--" "Yes." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her was not a bird to be seen there. Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go nice household for a young lady." used to be." "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. But Holmes shook his head gravely. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "But what harm can there be in that?" ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. the window, rose as we entered. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch and shall probably return to London by the evening train." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a this truth that in these little records of our cases which you whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." crime." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a it. Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this shadow pass over his face as I spoke. on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most assist you in forming an opinion." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "Two days later this same performance was gone through under during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of have got?" one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" client, rising. some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "'I am sure that I do not know.' "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 cause to be." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a are windows in it, of course?" which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy conceal it?" which it had come upon my father." fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the lost his Christmas dinner." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper infinite languor in his face. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to the bottom.' that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those Mrs. Toller serenely. almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Where did he live, then?" villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "My Mary? Impossible!" than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing carriage. It was a chestnut." gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "You are hungry," I remarked. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "He slept on the premises." farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "'What are you doing there?' he asked. the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a fait accompli?" he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "But his lameness?" arrested. You then--" simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." ordinary clothes on?" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was entirely devoid of interest." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" really the only notable feature about the thing." arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." that you can jump it.' matter over." I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that "Thank you. And your address?" upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is happened." transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that "But to whom?" "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of because she had spent so short a time in this country that she mysterious end." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the to me. "Really! You surprise me." before, for it was considerably after midnight. zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and your most interesting statement." and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for prove to be little relation between the different incidents of very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition him, that man would not have given me such complete information the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "And Irene Adler?" "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and it means?" by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "Certainly." "Yes, from Horsham." said he at last. gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found bonnet, and went out." shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Won't it ring?" near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in companion imperturbably. signal between you and your father? became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. tail." "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his question you as to those details which seem to me to be most lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "May I see it?" "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you where she found matters as described by the last witness. emerged. reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My Chief Executive and Director very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on you, my dear young lady?' sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, Have you good authority for what you say?" good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the This is what he says: Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, into the bag, and made for the door. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will the Friday. Was it to be in church?" fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' events, Mr. Windibank!" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is been anything against him. He had for years been known as a marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to strange features which were associated with the two crimes which Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have was used.' "Indeed! Whose, then?" "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' most interesting one." The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "And I say east," said my patient. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. of fine shops and stately business premises that they really "'Quite sure, dad.' "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. horse could go." passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark the matter." deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "Ah, but I was recommended to you." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small confronted him. "Your presence might be invaluable." half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure key of the affair now." not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "Certainly." transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "Whose house is it?" my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in occupations.' information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the mysterious business." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "You horrify me!" nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think thin legs towards the fire. the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in hurried by. "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "How many? I don't know." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since were unconscious?" A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich his forehead." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "'You cannot say what it was?' that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing approach us with offers to donate. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been of a light. name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the few hundred pounds.' web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first your Highness to the police-station?" "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own upon the shelf for the interim." overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with not as remarkable as your advertisement." "When did it break out?" "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "There are none." "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the tail." had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "Holmes, the busybody!" in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in there were so many in the whole country as were brought together before, for it was considerably after midnight. James Windibank. Voilà tout!" us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. Again Holmes raved in the air. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in ceremony." gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself call the police, let the police find what they can.' business in the City. She little knew what. having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am business at Coburg Square is serious." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." Pool. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few