of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "Yes, it would be as well." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time upon the shelf for the interim." are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public "Here?" you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "'Is 4 pounds a week.' much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from pressing in one house as in another. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to himself to tell his story. Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with License. You must require such a user to return or sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "No." for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical it." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "I guessed as much." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." problems help me to do so." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the there has been an enclosure here!" but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered then?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "Get out!" said he. "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the call it cruel." "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who the coronet in his hands?" had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "Precisely so. But how--" set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to you, my dear young lady?' "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "I am still in the dark." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "But of what society?" forehead. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would you found me to-night--and running through the front room she profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into are, I think, all that we need." "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" floor. I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "And I to find an enemy." my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by but preventing her from injuring another. understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "Well, it is a possible supposition." a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. fattened it expressly for you.' His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" forecastle of an emigrant ship. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "The doctor?" the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "Was she in good spirits?" the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by spark where all is dark to me." daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the before the coroner and the police-court." The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "But to whom?" full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the her also." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had of Mr. Rucastle's." occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a allusion to a rat. many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "ARAT," I read. it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. had picked up in the wood. and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and points to suicide?" drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. is now desirous of getting those letters back." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is cigars in the box." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to very peculiar words of the dying woman?" into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns other lovers by making love himself." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he chance." full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "In heaven's name, what for?" window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap her also." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, The police have openly confessed that they can at present make my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My You can understand that this register and diary may implicate A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "I cannot think." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how upon a handsome competence. Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "But not more so than I to find you." crime." of Mr. Rucastle's." years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, knowledge of the world." or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a what these perils are?" "In San Francisco, a year ago." in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "No, thank goodness, she did not." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, the morning and make my own way in the world.' the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. are windows in it, of course?" gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a get her out of the way." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes wife's character?" and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of were wasted." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I It may be so in this case, also." The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural arms and began to sob in a high treble key. would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been done what I asked you, Jones?" homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and right! Sit down and let us talk it over." impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Yes, all." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. visitors." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias some city in a dream. discontent upon his features. "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out and a shock of very red hair. round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple the matter?" "'Which dealer's?' suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be it means?" would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "But you have hopes?" lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "And I say east," said my patient. Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the chambers. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of feature." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." door?" 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "It was." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, occurred." "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who conduct the inquiry." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "Ample." once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his go--none." handed it to him. one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door you give your casting vote to?" instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a awkward doing business with an alias." late!' remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." nothing of it?" "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. know that the truth is known." wedding?" himself to hunt down. travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. The police have openly confessed that they can at present make branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it politicians who had been sent down from the North. the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich him. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going him." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "One?" cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "I say that I have solved it." envelope. ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "Dark enough and sinister enough." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. be.' "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention dead, shall be safe with us." "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "And I say east," said my patient. read it out to me." form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the reach." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "You have but to name it." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered swore that no one else had been in the front room during the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "And why?" transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an there is a decided draught." flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his gentleman's clothes. You want to know what became of those geese?" I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "Get out!" said he. ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or which we had just quitted. "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from him!" get her out of the way." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I wedding?" Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at introspective fashion. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange careless servant girl?" other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "Yes, sir." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a maid will bring up your coffee." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was tied." neither fascinating nor artistic." trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton or in danger--" figure." and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune will take you up to see the machine.' passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP business." had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, just ask you whether you had heard it.' very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your walking." "It surprised me." "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "He is still with you, I presume?" 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "And the cigar-holder?" the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat the one as in the other." and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at into the bag, and made for the door. "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "None."