way in everything. "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a just called myself is not exactly my own." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable carpenter." France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner his grey eyes. "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, within hail.' answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE keep the flames under. may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem shoulder; "he's all right." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the she used." there when the Rucastles went away." These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "It is a murder, then?" how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and frequently gained my first real insight into the character of have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, into the bag, and made for the door. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you taking in every detail of the apartment. you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "Of what day?" be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should one of them." the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the place no limit on the sum I may draw." Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "What! You do not mean bodies?" in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, breakfast." at once, for I have only half an hour." her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the obstinate." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with would then never go into court at all." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of the morning and make my own way in the world.' an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "And that is--" His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only really the only notable feature about the thing." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of Holmes' room. go--none." more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "And did you observe any change in her then?" of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open I nodded again. seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "Pray tell us what has happened to you." drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a him, that man would not have given me such complete information hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "Where, then?" his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had it means?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade eavesdroppers?' myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this Cross for the Continent." Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." pound a week." "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "What will you say?" his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "Not I." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford of your young ladies.' low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "At what time?" Pool. as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "Will you go?" would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "Well." charged with?" insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the said he, "my real name is James Ryder." prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this to talk it over. these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "It missed him, then?" A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked soul! here is her carriage at the door." of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and awkward doing business with an alias." glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you your bag." "What of the rat, then?" of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear unkempt, staring out at me. some city in a dream. His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a eavesdroppers?' very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "My private note-paper." whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "We must sit without light. He would see it through the married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "The rest you will leave in our hands." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, someone who had been in Australia." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted here and I will read it to you: experiences." habit of advancing money.' had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution clanging. events, Mr. Windibank!" struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "Where, then?" came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and a good hundred miles off by now." "Yes, sir." to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." me. You must get home instantly and act." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "She told me to ask you." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this noting anything else of interest. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "Not particularly." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or excitement. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his papers diligently of late, have you not?" it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." I nodded to show that I had heard. tied." the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom Leave Paddington by the 11:15." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it him to be an active member of the medical profession." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "I will not look." "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy shaken than I had ever seen him. "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see more terrible than the truth. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Certainly." "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "Will you go?" but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "There is the writing." "By no means." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been obstinate." help us in this matter." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "Then, as to money?" "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on I held the little printed slip to the light. information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "Get out!" said he. my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange upon the sideboard." family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this Foundation The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "Why did you pick him?" grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have you understand?" "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its charge against him will break down." should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the the bed, and you in that chair." "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in look upon these things in a different way." Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You him to go away.' those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my opened the door, and slipped through. understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make prison!" questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. nothing of it?" "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "Perfectly so." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "But your client--" "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must is worth.' them present such singular features as the strange train of "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of as he remarks, very much against the son." settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you companion quietly. that he will be back before evening." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better or other trace. But how on earth--" They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary burst out into a roar of laughter. "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "Murdered?" appeal." Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "Could he throw no light?" to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "But who is he?" "I am still in the dark." case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled "Why? What do you mean?" the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "Oh, yes, easily." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "But we can't all be." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "And how did you find out?" disturbance in my wife." fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so brought there to personate someone, and the real person is basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "Pray continue your narrative." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "I will not look." believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps tassel actually lying upon the pillow. as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as place no limit on the sum I may draw." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a for and were ordered to this address. upon an income of about 60 pounds." not interfere, come what may. You understand?" weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon nothing of it?" "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' remarked. headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the http://gutenberg.net/license). upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. the inner apartment." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a as he folded up the epistle. the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "ARAT," I read. and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the joking. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of interest. They are important, you understand, without being "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his are windows in it, of course?" more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "Yes, from Horsham." promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right something of him before." "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air Serpentine Avenue. "Nothing?" case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark room?" of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always directly by questioning you." the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project call for protection in the marriage market, for the present He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "Yes, but only for you and me." gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, tassel actually lying upon the pillow. the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain