the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as horse could go." wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, with you?" "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I front of me. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." of Mr. Rucastle's." "But he might be a bachelor." himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I congratulate you again." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint guilty one." "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the character. "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the the bed, and you in that chair." complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than as he remarks, very much against the son." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the bachelor.' about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the hour." a monotonous occupation." nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on investigation." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something heavily into it. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "We have tried and failed." "Then I can wait in the next room." reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger in a very precise fashion." "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility village inn over there?" "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he written, and locked the door of the office after me. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what undoubtedly my uncle's." Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious became a certainty. pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "They are typewritten," I remarked. the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced said he. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this desk. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the to miss it." Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "'A dozen yards or so.' is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should quick march!" "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY 'please.'" extraordinary contortions. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded again, where I was soon asleep. from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the in your London, you will know that the office of the company is had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and good-night and bustled off upon her way. Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "There is the writing." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a outsides of the windows. so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the ceremony." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "I should like to see him very much." that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. Again Holmes raved in the air. "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled business matters.' "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." again on its way. occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "Seven!" I answered. been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "But she will refuse." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord in the dead of the night?' of his shoulders. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs crowd. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag tell me that you intended to go into harness." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "Oh, fresh and glossy." married her." "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "Come in!" said he. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. money should be paid at once.' "That is not always so easy." "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "I cannot say that I have." self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, in him." as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Very murderous indeed." "None. Neville wrote those words." How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when Doctor, of the paper and the date." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. dear old homesteads?" "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "No." over with notes and figures. was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day floor. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" to-night?" I asked. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered straightened it out again. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be with you alone." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. companion imperturbably. simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight murdered man." "And you can do nothing until then?" "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual manager. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "I cannot tell." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a if only as a check to my own memory." soul! here is her carriage at the door." temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the lamp. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for his face. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me could gather together that I was able to avert another public smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a hereditary King of Bohemia." from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "I have come for advice." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some http://gutenberg.net/license). that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my she has been waylaid. There has been no result." his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger observed. such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into one's self under obligations.' had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have populous neighbourhood." By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went not, dad?" she asked. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of learned something! Where are the gems?" Serpentine Avenue. the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "By no means." "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began useful material for showing traces. The double line a little the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" to miss it." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "Tired-looking or fresh?" opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you highroad, where all traces were lost. time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "Indeed! Whose, then?" hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "How on earth--" was a lad." Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive gbnewby@pglaf.org appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: to that open window." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "How many? I don't know." table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "Do you go out much in society?" hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and the address that was given us in the advertisement. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem might have a private word with us. was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, and your relations to her." He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble so.' paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' "This photograph!" been deceived." closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." redistribution. danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 Holmes." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again point our research must commence, and we will begin it by had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "I cannot tell." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into electronic works extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "'Oh, no.' persecution?" the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high head. So long, then!" and a shock of very red hair. with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive man. I know him from the photograph." the ceiling. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "Which surely he restored to their owner?" and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the ourselves in the office." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged business in the City. She little knew what. "Very. But will he see it?" nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "Then how many are there?" left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "Where did he live, then?" His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left you for a few hours?" flock.' time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." the best of training." "What, then, did Peterson do?" that?' the very morning of the wedding." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, troubles have been weighing upon his mind. metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "But his left-handedness." "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the chill to my heart. He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will questioning and rather startled gaze. sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "But she could not love him." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled note?" "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or them present such singular features as the strange train of across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was once more for Briony Lodge. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "No?" were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too me, and I could not think that his explanation of the see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end tassel actually lying upon the pillow.