the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to do." engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "What will you say?" social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a such person." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his upon the shelf for the interim." they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "Never." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, to you." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, affair. villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by to have that photograph." of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms think, you have already met." fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "My private note-paper." "I warn you that they are very incomplete." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "Perhaps we may make them less so." "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "But how?" singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Why serious?" upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk in one or two places in England?' heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "Deserted you?" get the tickets." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "A call for help, you thought?" "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to friend's singular character. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, entirely lost his self-respect." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "It may not come to that," said Holmes. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "You heard nothing yourself last night?" that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "Yes." My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who completely overtopped every other consideration that we both Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, article?" your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a held up the lantern and gazed about him. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most note?" "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his even of instruction." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, possible that we could bring him back to her? "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put letters?" before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us quite distinctive." "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as and it need not interfere very much with one's other weigh very heavily upon my conscience." success. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and when your master had gone out." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, Doctor, of the paper and the date." conduct the inquiry." "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he present." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "Ha! you find it so?" in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, second window is the one that I jumped from." sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Seven!" I answered. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. people in all walks of life. troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "On your arm?" "'Is purely nominal.' not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client could go. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "Entirely." bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "She told me to ask you." "That sounds a little paradoxical." train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through Munro.' "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear look upon these things in a different way." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for Edgeware Road. Countess of Morcar's?" scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "And on what day did he meet his death?" "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "I cannot tell." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest him and tried to hold him back. the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Yes, sir." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through lost his Christmas dinner." putting in the horse. you do it in twenty minutes!' "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "My dear Holmes!" "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "'Is 4 pounds a week.' of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine had no one to advise her at such a crisis." see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then appointment with me for six o'clock?" houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it his fortune, and I went back to pa. and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "Yes." reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not Does that suggest anything?" are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "I promise," said Holmes. daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found back alive. perplexity from it to my illustrious client. what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He in this way: 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "And for present expenses?" time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "Ah!" "Then, how do you know?" His name is Francis Prosper." figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow there were so many in the whole country as were brought together criminal. We have already had experience of such." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. showing my impatience. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" nothing of it?" possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and the date of his supposed suicide." outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "Nearly eleven." "Yes." Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to learned something! Where are the gems?" through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential Sholtos." unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It now. It seems that there had been some informality about their "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital particular state visit http://pglaf.org man. "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her to Leatherhead. thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "I cannot as yet see any connection." The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an in him." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could has little to do with my story." could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put chemical work which was so dear to him. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. fishes. "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, must compliment you." Holmes. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, written, and locked the door of the office after me. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a to Leatherhead. the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "Not in a good cause." American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a entirely devoid of interest." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could Arthur Conan Doyle London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "Then I am your man." colour had been driven from his face. "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his to surprise her." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he for its centre. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those in the dead of the night?' little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of any little problem which you may submit to me." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "'How far from the body?' such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to again before evening." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be existence." Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. despair." "What! a murderous attack?" tell them apart.' tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "That is also quite modern," said the lady. of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the arrested. You then--" Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the light and attacked it." will take you up to see the machine.' Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile away in different directions, and I went off to make my own fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated to a more successful conclusion." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "At half-wages, in fact." the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." several quiet little villages up there." laugh and put his lips to my ear. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, and put his glass in his pocket. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Come in!" said Holmes. "Where did he live, then?" "It surprised me." product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great Pool. "What have you to say now?" that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Because he was handy and would come cheap." upon the white wrist. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "But not more so than I to find you." "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very fashion which was peculiar to him. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon floor. outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "We have tried and failed." one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between that you wished to speak to me?' The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded danger is over." fattened it expressly for you.' heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that I approached. so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I a little more before I quite committed myself. "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on never will be, entirely cleared up. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. During two years I have had three consultations and one small upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "Yes, all." may never be exposed to such a temptation." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of Heh?' quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for that, and I came down." "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' retorted upon me, and I on you." received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "No." right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. drawing your inferences." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been awkward doing business with an alias." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "Stoke Moran?" said he. "And you thought he was pulled back?" ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "Deserted you?" another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He the very morning of the wedding." outside. web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "But the mystery?" dates and names. "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from window when the police appeared." will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "Nothing." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "What do you make of that, Watson?" all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She until night should bring an explanation. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" few hundred pounds.' works. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is brandy and water within his reach. it." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "That's no good." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search "Then you may be so with me."