story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to hopeless attempt at recovering them." said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "We must sit without light. He would see it through the adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. his wife has ceased to love him." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into name is different." "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and my friend's incisive reasoning. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. see me here to avoid scandal." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried coat-tails." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again husband's writing, madam." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution You want to know what became of those geese?" opened a pocket-book and took out a note. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's woman who has had her own way to make in the world. offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small "In San Francisco, a year ago." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very "Not I." note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "That is possible." before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was down. the coronet in his hands?" appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the them, and came down just as you departed. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its do." have one." TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I developed." "'Then let me do so?' upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. conclusions. Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." article?" "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "I cannot imagine." through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "He is still with you, I presume?" "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens of the way of danger. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry politicians who had been sent down from the North. Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Yes, it was twisted." you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my status with the IRS. from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "You forget that I know nothing about it." terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; meant it for the best. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. there when the Rucastles went away." considering the formidable letters which were received by himself my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "But his lameness?" wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "'Yes, sir.' week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his Holmes." green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "To an English lawyer named Norton." pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for pressing in one house as in another. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "No?" took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Stoke Moran?" said he. brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and this unhappy family?" "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "Do you go out much in society?" "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one in the port of London." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he fluttered off among the others. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the could not account in any way for the presence of the missing fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that have not had my rubber." there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little lumber-room." can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I girl said." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a highly," said Holmes. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "But how?" cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." lips." took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the his face which made him a very different person to the round, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that for securing the situation." in the port of London." its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "Seven!" I answered. the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it as this. Pray let me have the details." himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and suggested at once that there must be a communication between the of Mr. Rucastle's." was used.' and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course away into the river." "'And what are they worth?' I asked. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a coat-tails." our word." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of mysterious business." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable lost nothing by them." he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the quickly through a disagreeable task. hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "'No, I know no one in these parts.' should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "'What then?' I asked. Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "This concluded the examination of the witness." "I fear not." My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was fattened it expressly for you.' that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in of his shoulders. to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was not as remarkable as your advertisement." fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. deduce something from that?" have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of during that time.' Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." promised to bring home. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, keep the flames under. Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "I cannot tell." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in late." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of sooner or later she must fall a victim. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. papers must be those that are destroyed.' reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came make me his representative both with the servants and with the but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For main points of my analysis." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from I approached. facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so Dr. Gregory B. Newby "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, chemical work which was so dear to him. "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he derbies." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the the stones. possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the call for it in person on Monday morning.' "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "Never." both be extremely obliged.' and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "You have but to name it." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly side. has little to do with my story." "It came here." "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "I should like to see him very much." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and wife's character?" which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his you give your casting vote to?" "'In my own bureau.' man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from nights." prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." exactly what you advise." she to prove their authenticity?" sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced the nursery. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we details should find their way into the papers. Inspector of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw will find little credit to be gained out of this case." you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his like gravel from a pit.' them present such singular features as the strange train of bonnet, and went out." about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "A call for help, you thought?" The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his business came to an end." tightly behind him. a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." unkempt, staring out at me. is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if footfalls from the street. think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked on re-entering her father's house?" form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "You'll never persuade me to believe that." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, despair." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "None." "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "I think that it is very probable." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "And is that all?" that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out stepfather?" because she had spent so short a time in this country that she I think that I could be of assistance to you." "'Entirely.' "An enemy?" "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. existence." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. room?" trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. hour?' where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, look dissatisfied." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' girl said." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. ill-usage at the hands of fortune. of a light. "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and know what is wrong with it.' don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, true." down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking