and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours events, Mr. Windibank!" you give your casting vote to?" grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "Well, some hundreds of times." every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "This concluded the examination of the witness." "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the done what I asked you, Jones?" "Bought." "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "You have carte blanche." next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, impression behind it as though a window had gently closed of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "Then I can wait in the next room." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "I was mad--insane." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Can I be of assistance?" few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him you found me to-night--and running through the front room she of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was himself. jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" grasp, he hurried from the room. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "I am about to be married." a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but look dissatisfied." stalked out of the room. front of me. "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving national property. I was determined that the law should have its which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek man. still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are rat could hardly pass through." near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "'Where to?' shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "Yes." following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure what I may call a really hard day's work." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the experiences." Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "That was it, sir." eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "Dark enough and sinister enough." entirely devoid of interest." "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "Whose house is it?" narrative." "Married! When?" light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "No. His orders were to stay in the house." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions astonishment. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought likely to be some crony of the landlady's." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no means taking possession of that which another person has a prior and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not lectures into a series of tales." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the spark where all is dark to me." "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was indeed which he could not unravel. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, stalked out of the room. opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a beg that you will break it off." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang better grown goose." owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight conduct the inquiry." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of again on its way. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "And why?" "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his electronic works creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the fasten all the windows?" opened a pocket-book and took out a note. and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to your billet.' It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to begun to whiten, even as mine has." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "He is dead," cried several voices. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. the roots. fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I me where it went to?" we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he never will be, entirely cleared up. The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He writer." "Not him." the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about key of the affair now." door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "What steps will you take?" I asked. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" Pope's Court, Fleet Street." dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "You saw the ventilator, too?" Holmes' face clouded over. copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt will not take me long to tell. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of Lestrade of Scotland Yard." member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "What! Had he lost his wife?" that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that along the entire front of the house, with three long windows reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should occurred." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, that you wished to speak to me?' happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard the inner apartment." against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: to tell." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He of a light. I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "And why in hopes?" "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he tied." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is my room." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to the iron safe, which he closed upon it. and all of them with the keenest interest. a good hundred miles off by now." wedding?" "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a how narrow had been my escape. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to what I may call a really hard day's work." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, go from here to the Strand." chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "I am to be neutral?" of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "None." posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), new acquaintance to Baker Street. "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. could not have written that. It is the German who is so fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. Munro.' it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS once more for Briony Lodge. "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this at home. the coronet in his hands?" For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he introspective fashion. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very point our research must commence, and we will begin it by you found me to-night--and running through the front room she every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "The best possible." the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change should be so warm over such a trifle." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. Heh?' which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old handed it to him. of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was in darkness. "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure even so self-evident a thing as that." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "I have seen the police." matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. closely." collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an affection." and files of the old papers, following the future career of every there were one or two details which were new to me. But the about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are and all of them with the keenest interest. Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror hardly wander." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect some terrible trap for her." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined Watson," he said cordially. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a evidence," I remarked. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a drawing your inferences." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "'I am sure if I had known--' He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months affair. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "You will not go there first?" were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "In San Francisco, a year ago." piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "But what will you do?" "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, floor. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her returned to France?" the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you wife's character?" the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good trying to your nerves." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, have one." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "Never." ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "If I can be of use." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after cigar and let me expound." wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. yards of it?' widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature burst out into a roar of laughter. "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the directly by questioning you." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of matter over." tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "'Certainly,' I answered. where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "It looks newer than the other things?" and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE to a light-house. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of wedding?" room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "The doctor?" a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide noble correspondent could be. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm infinite languor in his face. hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could even of instruction." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" London for the present?" sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary possible that we could bring him back to her? fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "So I heard. You have him here?" through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "You know me, then?" That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we against a man in the prime of life?" he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got straighten it?" "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "And the cigar-holder?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.'