even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my upon a handsome competence. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. telegram would bring me down to your help." individual and becomes the badge of a society." constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel down. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "Where did he live, then?" occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "The knees of his trousers." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal as he remarks, very much against the son." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even take the flies, but not before." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical trying to your nerves." go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see and wait." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "Yes." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "'Stolen!' he cried. paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I wedding?" is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction breakfast." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade License. You must require such a user to return or My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional is so. I know all about McCarthy." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. touch that coronet?' He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "And you thought he was pulled back?" down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" cigar and let me expound." invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "When did she vanish, then?" but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "In what way?" asked Holmes. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "Texas, I think." life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "This photograph!" week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call crime." "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into business?" the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not I think that I could be of assistance to you." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' it. my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "No." "Yes." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "Yes, from Horsham." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my seen the man in the road." "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate as noiselessly as she had come. you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the prove to be little relation between the different incidents of mystery!" three fields round his house, and there he would take his gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous companion quietly. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course present strange and interesting features that it is no easy it right.' "Can I be of assistance?" whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. that you can jump it.' to-night's adventure." village inn over there?" forebodings. which it had come upon my father." been anything against him. He had for years been known as a enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge to-morrow." "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Then I can wait in the next room." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day particular state visit http://pglaf.org clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and points in connection with it which never have been, and probably in darkness. saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." upon an income of about 60 pounds." get the tickets." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that be. indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in matters immensely." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from Pool. scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were shall not find me ungrateful." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "I don't say that. Perhaps." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it enter Dr. Roylott's room." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "In answer to an advertisement." building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" feature." playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. to arrive at through this?" discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, unprecedented a position." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, as he folded up the epistle. his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "It missed him, then?" hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "It is his hat." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the vault. learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "Very. But will he see it?" "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "Then you may be so with me." legal crime." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off companion quietly. was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. points to suicide?" upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' seem to you to be relevant or not." one of the states of the Union." flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and thirty. copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he memory. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "No more words. Get out!" year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and once more. "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. Holmes rather sternly. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "VIOLET HUNTER." "Yes, sir." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "'Which dealer's?' another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "It is very kind of you." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. was used.' the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special get the tickets." good-night and bustled off upon her way. "'Where could I find him?' extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was it." smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been the running down." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after official police." complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. confronted him. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "It is very kind of you." Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "Yes?" You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where open." your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "Did you observe the colour?" "What shall I do?" secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to rooms." "And I say east," said my patient. "I am about to be married." since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in money should be paid at once.' what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "Do you go out much in society?" It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque your room." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found people don't know." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "And I say east," said my patient. fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he province." how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but Gutenberg-tm License. bedroom door." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his events than those which have happened in my own family." from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of once more. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked your bag." "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." had formerly been in part my own. "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more matters immensely." I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "Yes." "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of man. purpose equally well?" process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united your billet.' into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "Pray be precise as to details," said he. round and wave him away like that.' and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective bird of prey. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "Quite so." will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "It was a confession," I ejaculated. again before evening." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now of campaign. remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows know what is wrong with it.' status with the IRS. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "Ample." that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Well?" of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open something of him before." decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon."