since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: my secret was safe in his possession. "I am still in the dark." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "May I see it?" be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which derbies." family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been lamp in his hand. miles off. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, you." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one I have it here in my museum." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and should be so warm over such a trifle." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. door?" opened the door, and slipped through. and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "Will you go?" clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a down. "It's nothing of the kind." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. the inquest, and which are worth considering." photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son is so. I know all about McCarthy." "And you don't know his address?" he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? approach us with offers to donate. "'Where to?' sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this dramatic, in fact." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "I have a cab outside." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to awkward doing business with an alias." with her." known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I overpowering excitement and concern. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger Holmes rather sternly. Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "You horrify me!" either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "And Irene Adler?" "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his the inner apartment." the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if the iron safe, which he closed upon it. been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." business at Coburg Square is serious." and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth infinite languor in his face. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon appeal." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been his fortune, and I went back to pa. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, side. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "Then he might have called to you?" these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he advice." sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One woman who has had her own way to make in the world. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter may never be exposed to such a temptation." these bleak autumnal evenings." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "She told me to ask you." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! confronted him. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a clang of the bell. elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, "Yes, certainly." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the with her." learned something! Where are the gems?" "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "And now?" I asked. "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to himself to tell his story. know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged think, you have already met." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "That is unusual in a young girl." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and or in danger--" up this clue while it is still hot." astonishment. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good appeared upon the scene." "Did you observe the colour?" disappearance of these gems?" "Here?" and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not murdered man." charge against him will break down." "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "It is to him that this trophy belongs." Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple carriage. It was a chestnut." "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "That is not always so easy." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of read over the extraordinary announcement. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "No, I am descending." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! problems help me to do so." "You were travelling in the States?" constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." "To the police?" voice. "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which have I gained?" brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very know what is wrong with it.' used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so go back?" posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." were new raised from a basin. "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "We have tried and failed." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of and a shock of very red hair. lumber-room." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "Yes, he did." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It know what is wrong with it.' gone. world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "'Not at all. I only doubt--' general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. someone who had been in Australia." Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the was shining brightly. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "What, then?" happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." here." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "I see many objections to any such theory." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to of Fenchurch Street." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which wedding?" "He disappeared so suddenly." a little more before I quite committed myself. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is of receipt of the work. little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a I think that I could be of assistance to you." "Not in the least." important." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "How often?" deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "It is his hat." have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock the bottom.' "Your presence might be invaluable." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "He might." hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "That you are never beaten." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right prisoner's face. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "Game for a morning drive?" thin, with a long, sharp nose?" pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "But how?" "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. beg that you will break it off." two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. in this way: Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "'I have already given you my word.' that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "That is also quite modern," said the lady. "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. note?" do.' "What can you not understand?" of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be success. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then himself to hunt down. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I bell. Holmes whistled. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the certainly do as you advise." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the breakfast and whispered something to her husband. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. Pope's Court. was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." and the church but not where the lady lived." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, new acquaintance to Baker Street. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up in your London, you will know that the office of the company is "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door held up the lantern and gazed about him. chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the the nursery. cost them two and thirty pounds." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. province." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward done what I asked you, Jones?" usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the nothing with him." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man "No, I am descending." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "My dear Holmes!" truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham what these perils are?" everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "That's no good." took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was call you and give you the chance." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. as he folded up the epistle. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She one of them." "My last client of the sort was a king." purpose of examination. and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a look dissatisfied." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and the running down." was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If straighten it?" "I have a cab outside." stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." Leadenhall Street--and--" "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of the one as in the other." invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or giving me time to thank him. unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry,