confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too had no one to advise her at such a crisis." was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "My private note-paper." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in point our research must commence, and we will begin it by Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "It certainly sounds feasible." had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria I. delighted to hear it," he said. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square one which it was hard to resist. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "A client, then?" as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "But you were on a friendly footing?" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you posted to-day." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable think, you have already met." happened." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he that you saw all that I did." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. joking. o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, photograph?" house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and brain must have something in it." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot guilty parties." stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I fluttered off among the others. and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young call you and give you the chance." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he the dangers which encompass me." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the stepfather?" wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "What I expected to see." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an and the colonel ushered me in. Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE points to suicide?" outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "What! Had he lost his wife?" "Witness: I must still refuse. when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear directors have had misgivings upon the subject." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of up this clue while it is still hot." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in were wasted." Project Gutenberg-tm works. delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was lost nothing by them." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "And is that all?" so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, all?" case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "Pray tell us what has happened to you." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to way in." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "'Oh, no.' comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "'Never,' said I. at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. matter over." "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, lost nothing by them." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "'Very good.' remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The of your young ladies.' assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "But what will you do?" in my life." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "I am armed." Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "And how did you find out?" there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these colour had been driven from his face. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for habit of advancing money.' hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "Now, then, what's the last entry?" admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect address. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and one which it was hard to resist. pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned villagers almost as much as their master. had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My take the flies, but not before." from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, whereabouts. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I never will be, entirely cleared up. Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I Surrey." foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "I am to be neutral?" on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "'No, I know no one in these parts.' wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small forbidden door. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny is acting for the best. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "It came here." Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she highly," said Holmes. beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot bare slabs of marble. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more I. time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "And how have you succeeded?" simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. possible that we could bring him back to her? "Upon what point?" importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, lectures into a series of tales." annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "Not social, then?" the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon upon a handsome competence. me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There ashen face. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "No. His orders were to stay in the house." never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" invisible to me," I remarked. "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must any." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Witness: Nothing definite. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock for the market.' the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it electronic works was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and over here." and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon chance." forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could as he folded up the epistle. doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: could not account in any way for the presence of the missing of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I looking up at the numbers of the houses." had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "He is dead," cried several voices. "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "That is possible." "Here?" web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. my special province." article?" us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in and that he would see to anything that turned up. means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of young Openshaw's." "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "'Stolen!' he cried. while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity paper in the air. bachelor.' passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and fact, we may call it conclusive." the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "But his left-handedness." "I will try. What is it?" key of the affair now." The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "I came to find a friend." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "And that is--" I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause what do you think they found in the pockets?" lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have down in his armchair and closing his eyes. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in troubles have been weighing upon his mind. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But know all about it," he snarled. the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies subject to the trademark license, especially commercial generous with you in money matters.' me upon any point which I do not make clear." have been better. It is all right." "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to appeared upon the scene." "My private note-paper." "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee writers could invent nothing more crude." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "And Irene Adler?" veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "But his left-handedness." despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand forecastle of an emigrant ship. "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "Nor running a chance of arrest?" farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or only touch the interest." interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time light and attacked it." Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young But Holmes shook his head gravely. twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' said he. "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet learned something! Where are the gems?" "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "It was." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy interests were the same as his." "The doctor?" His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his chambers. before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be jewels which you have stolen?' four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "Bought." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long and I shall be with you presently." "'Yes.' hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "No?" "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against