"No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "She showed me, as I told you she would." desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong pictures, libraries, or plate. 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "But he might be a bachelor." are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "What have you to say now?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." had died away into the silence from which it rose. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, perplexity from it to my illustrious client. at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "No. His orders were to stay in the house." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a down from London to inquire more deeply into it." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "We have tried and failed." "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "What! Had he lost his wife?" "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. yet." envelope. myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "Well, it is a possible supposition." heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution trying to your nerves." There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it at home. glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside she might be summoned. style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "No, finished." public press." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from fluttered off among the others. after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just politicians who had been sent down from the North. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." main points of my analysis." strode off upon his way. "Of what day?" you give your casting vote to?" public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." returning from some small jollification and was making his way "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." do." "You have but to name it." McCarthy." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "But he might be a bachelor." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never of campaign. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. she has been waylaid. There has been no result." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the appeal." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the Cross for the Continent." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and ourselves in the office." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "A call for help, you thought?" sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. been with you?" believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "Why did you beat the pavement?" "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "Not particularly." probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps there was no need for father to know." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "She showed me, as I told you she would." exactly what you advise." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had hands. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Who by?" opened a pocket-book and took out a note. there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as constraint." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." Holmes rather sternly. his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. compunction about shooting them down." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took think that he is innocent?" "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "A confidential servant?" up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery His name is Francis Prosper." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "I cannot as yet see any connection." think you a quite exceptional woman." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. Project Gutenberg-tm works. the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was any more." "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who chance." a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he the Friday. Was it to be in church?" collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such would then never go into court at all." of it with the greatest attention. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all acted in my house last night?" "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "You did not overhear what they said?" "I have seen the police." "'Very good.' Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either charge against him will break down." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "My dear Holmes!" "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the I have it here in my museum." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! of this gang." in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "The vanishing of the lady." on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched humiliation." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "What steps will you take?" I asked. rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that appointment with me for six o'clock?" I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be children over to America with him, so that I found myself without bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from be sorry for having acted so harshly." five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "Dr. Becher's." stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "Nor running a chance of arrest?" thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the to tackle the facts." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "And now?" I asked. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly helping a boy to put up the shutters. him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill of it with the greatest attention. upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a third from London." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite spark where all is dark to me." "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "Awake, Watson?" he asked. fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "And that is--" cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, appeared upon the scene." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was that you saw all that I did." conversation I have gathered that they have been married about fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front business." "Yes, from Horsham." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "Very. But will he see it?" upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "I am sure." over part of the map. "What do you read?" behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and putting in the horse. "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "So it appears." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was did not hear it also.' which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." "Where is it, then?" Holmes. matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I to Leatherhead. and prosperity to your house. Good-night." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable and looked back. I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for shall use the carriage to-night." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "We have tried and failed." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "I shall be delighted." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the front of the hall door has given its name to the place. took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to McCarthy." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was the coronet in his hand?" There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me morning." and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely him to go away.' above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "But she could not love him." "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The had this final quarrel? "Here?" Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Absolutely none." gone. young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "You are hungry," I remarked. work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "When did she vanish, then?" so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "I am about to be married." drove away. "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H me where it went to?" should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. persecution?" "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a Lee, in the county of Kent." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and prepare for the new role I have to play." prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "No, distinctly professional." "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. "Very much so." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "If so, much may have happened between." don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "Yes, sir." have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "'Yes, it was gone.' And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found directors, with the result that you have seen." mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The Leave Paddington by the 11:15." one's self under obligations.' "I should be immensely obliged to you." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four this truth that in these little records of our cases which you and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the tell me that you intended to go into harness." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses pity, because in other respects you would really have done very practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really the dangers which encompass me." 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "It is half-past ten now." vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." vault. would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he chance." "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "At half-wages, in fact." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it."