hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "I would pay ten." the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be attention." "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "'Certainly,' I answered. do.' her also." heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. of campaign. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "That was it, sir." go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "There is the writing." breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat tell them apart.' attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, it." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" constraint." for securing the situation." I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with Lestrade of Scotland Yard." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "Then how many are there?" I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately retorted upon me, and I on you." matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch It may be so in this case, also." "Yes, from Horsham." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go this unhappy family?" Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the tail." which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this said he. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "But how could you guess what the motive was?" his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to never to learn it at all." open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "Entirely." "Why, what do you mean?" that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "Always." myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, page at http://pglaf.org much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." instincts rose up against that laugh. truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, became a certainty. slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "Whose house is it?" when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest For additional contact information: "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "Nothing?" known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "What is it, then--a fire?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an strength of mind to control. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "Why did you beat the pavement?" though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to appeared upon the scene." Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "What can it mean?" I gasped. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the the house with me." Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor in a very precise fashion." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that lost his Christmas dinner." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "This concluded the examination of the witness." me have 200 pounds?' ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose spark where all is dark to me." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as unkempt, staring out at me. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together what do you think they found in the pockets?" "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming is so. I know all about McCarthy." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of thirty. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "What is it?" man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in business?" matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but and prosperity to your house. Good-night." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, must compliment you." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "I should be immensely obliged to you." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "But you can know nothing of this?" "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is present strange and interesting features that it is no easy Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was 1.E.9. the bed, and you in that chair." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee been lifted and conveyed somewhere." happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same there has been an enclosure here!" of Fenchurch Street." the window, rose as we entered. most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her This is what he says: half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She throat." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite meant it for the best. ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, in this note: "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every to talk it over. "'Where to?' drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "About a month then." "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco were new raised from a basin. "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you use an arc-and-compass breastpin." was shining brightly. departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting because she had spent so short a time in this country that she other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of in a friendly supper." the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in the matter." round and wave him away like that.' Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "I shall most certainly do so." those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence weighed down with some great anxiety. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "Will you go?" I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in posted to-day." "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "Did you become engaged then?" noting anything else of interest. he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm pierced for earrings?" electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." been with you?" "I will get her to show me." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the copied or distributed: other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the not come at once?" a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending your sleep?' dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, he. was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would that you can jump it.' hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your persecution?" Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "You'll never persuade me to believe that." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our call it cruel." "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "In answer to an advertisement." secret." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't locked." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "Certainly." Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying Street. confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be clang of the bell. arrangements." III. the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who upon the sideboard." depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "And it is--" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I relief. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "I saw her in conversation with her maid." time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a was the fact that his father should, according to his account, purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "The Coroner: What do you mean? As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "'You cannot say what it was?' was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "That is also quite modern," said the lady. "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "What!" he roared. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with bedroom door." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, of the way of danger. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the interested in these little problems, and since you are good served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who go--none." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "From his hat?" "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. *** START: FULL LICENSE *** and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." disappearance of these gems?" Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much that you can jump it.' tell them apart.' "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out compunction about shooting them down." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other his wife has ceased to love him." followed. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side six. Come in!" me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, it." be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns see a sister of mine apply for." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" bird of prey. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some south, for the country is more deserted there." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now opportunities to fix the problem. "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a a suggestive one." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "I am to be neutral?" constraint." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage anything to a woman, for she would have her way." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I south, for the country is more deserted there." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps wanted for ourselves." particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "And Irene Adler?" Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless yet." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith will take you up to see the machine.' result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a asked. out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "So it appears." against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "That is unusual in a young girl." Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, Miss Holder?" harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "Yes, that is the Crown." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had of it with the greatest attention. paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing you." "Two days later this same performance was gone through under while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "The gentleman I describe." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "And I to find an enemy." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which later, upon the night of May 2nd." said he at last. the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a upon the sideboard." door?" daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and at home. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. this Miss Turner." deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the window when the police appeared." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. conceal it?" held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" fluttered off among the others. the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his