terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same me." "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "'Why that?' I asks. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, the window, rose as we entered. furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "What then?" unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. me, and I could not think that his explanation of the and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours it with his own hands." "By all means." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying skylight. "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "Game for a morning drive?" "No, distinctly professional." garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "None." "You have the photograph?" empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts a monotonous occupation." "Indeed! Whose, then?" harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "What?" He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that 1.F. of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out your Highness to the police-station?" the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "I will not look." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to one which it was hard to resist. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest maid will bring up your coffee." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to himself. '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. I held the little printed slip to the light. your troubles." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his McCarthy's innocence. British peeress.'" am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "I cannot imagine." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "Then I am your man." "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Then, how do you know?" presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "What! You do not mean bodies?" eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. go back?" "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "Yes, only one." shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" call you and give you the chance." frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "No, I am descending." guilty parties." Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits society." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was I shall continue with my miserable story. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at Holmes. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and strode off upon his way. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has look dissatisfied." daring than any effort of the imagination." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "'There is a drive, then?' "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "On Monday." which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "I assure you that I am in your hands." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a open." paper in the air. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was national property. I was determined that the law should have its coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "And how did he make his money?" "By no means." papers diligently of late, have you not?" week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they people in all walks of life. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of away into the river." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "How are you getting on?" "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "I was afraid that you were engaged." "But I am all in the dark." jewels which you have stolen?' do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove should be taken.' him nearly every evening." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I when your master had gone out." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "But who is he?" The King stared at him in amazement. who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet signal between you and your father? little trying to do so much typewriting?" has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the present." what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Then you may entirely rely on me." of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. the ceiling. an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "Certainly, madam." "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his and laid it on the table. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such where we are going." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been recover the gem." Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." married her." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "No, distinctly professional." in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing compunction about shooting them down." over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "Yes. He waved his hands." however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "'Entirely.' WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who ourselves in the office." "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "I was sure that I might rely on you." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "And how did he make his money?" carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "In which, sir?" "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was very peculiar words of the dying woman?" light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the village inn over there?" before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. he bowed and left the room without another word. smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not meant." "She told me to ask you." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the to tackle the facts." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a to Leatherhead. come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "Thank you. Pray proceed." submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too forebodings. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey in a friendly supper." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a has little to do with my story." and have this put in the evening papers." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." populous neighbourhood." from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "And leave your case unfinished?" about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is least a fellow-countryman. "What can you not understand?" One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true look upon these things in a different way." in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. weapon." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I to talk it over. "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "How do you know, then?" Miss Holder?" "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter him to be an active member of the medical profession." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." have one." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred death." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the tightly behind him. owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "And how have you succeeded?" "He is dead," cried several voices. lamp. not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger reach." "I should wish to." in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "Game for a morning drive?" was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "It surprised me." Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the go back?" his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been as he remarks, very much against the son." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing back alive. set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." I held the little printed slip to the light. and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud acted in my house last night?" occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the the child." maid will bring up your coffee." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And someone who had been in Australia." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. strode off upon his way. business in the City. She little knew what. saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "I do." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the quite distinctive." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "And what did you learn from him?" whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "No." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her you in your example." effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Very. But will he see it?" "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "But you have hopes?" Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might eavesdroppers?' impression behind it as though a window had gently closed salesman. again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "In which, sir?" not as remarkable as your advertisement." "You have the photograph?" "At what time?" the child." "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. look upon these things in a different way." your own bird, so if you wish--" he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "Well, some hundreds of times." Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would business came to an end." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with details should find their way into the papers. Inspector There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime digesting their breakfasts at home." Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have