if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I and laid it on the table. a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a extraordinary contortions. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "What have you done?" asked Holmes. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor which was all perfectly true. He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with and that he would see to anything that turned up. "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the the running down." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the knowledge of the world." expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat American. Then who could this American be, and why should he you?' the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to think that he is innocent?" tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we certainly not very gracious." "I am sure." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or other lovers by making love himself." By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." my friend's incisive reasoning. silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "No." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his became a certainty. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. your only hope of safety." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared six. Come in!" because she had spent so short a time in this country that she even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an formed some opinion?" gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "Precisely so. But how--" They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for whereabouts. affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you tell me that you intended to go into harness." "Yes." shall not find me ungrateful." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew which we had just quitted. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I new acquaintance to Baker Street. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue key of the affair now." where we are going." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons your Highness to the police-station?" "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." society." "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square promised to bring home. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "'Is purely nominal.' Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in was not a bird to be seen there. to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to annoyance, but no jest. Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I evidence," I remarked. The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his she slowly sank and died without having recovered her joking. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better neither fascinating nor artistic." of your young ladies.' down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "The knees of his trousers." "How many? I don't know." matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' did not hear it also.' "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "Yes, they were peculiar boots." the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "And leave your case unfinished?" stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that footfalls from the street. his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If rat could hardly pass through." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, character. shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but husband's writing, madam." "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an information in his hands the value of which he did not himself Street. professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without most important business. It is probable that he will be away all accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made allusion to a rat. them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "Of what day?" King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but writers could invent nothing more crude." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank rose-bushes. For additional contact information: he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and into the room. lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous could go. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. Lestrade of Scotland Yard." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that him and tried to hold him back. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our morning." the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece started for the Temple to see my husband. the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. from the brougham. "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Again Holmes raved in the air. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men outside. "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "But what harm can there be in that?" to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a threw himself down with his face to the pillow. Sholtos." it. breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "'Most admirably.' finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, his eyes and forehead. "'And what salary do you ask?' stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The again, where I was soon asleep. I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, Gutenberg-tm License. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second occurred." paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, thin, with a long, sharp nose?" made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." photograph?" to miss it." "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a this Miss Turner." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud Holmes. first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and during which he might have communicated with his friend the do." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, opportunities to fix the problem. your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "At the wedding breakfast." these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the colonel looking down at me. third from London." it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "To an English lawyer named Norton." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "But how?" all?" self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "Will you go?" once more. "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "No?" without a word or a look. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and away in different directions, and I went off to make my own Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my was a perfect sample of the class. with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "And I to find an enemy." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a a room. that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I "Which are?" "It is a murder, then?" Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, astonishment. in the hope of finding them." already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute be. admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both fattened it expressly for you.' reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, Young McCarthy must be got off, however." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "'Yes.' encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small the house with me." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." cause to be." suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable always that they were such commands as a lady might with away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your views." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you the coronet in his hands?" no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "No, I had a dozen." you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." criminal. We have already had experience of such." inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "'Certainly not. But why?' man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you have accepted such a situation. right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "'Yes.' "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP locked. true." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, he died? friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "There are none." "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "In answer to an advertisement." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Eyford." the bed, and you in that chair." "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" over his head with a sweet womanly caress. which it had come upon my father." his face. his face. jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads away into the river." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "I was certainly surprised to find you there." woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," soul! here is her carriage at the door." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the yet." will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do