which we had just quitted. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your was used.' have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "Entirely." as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such following enigmatical notices: strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing DISSOLVED. My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud morning." of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been come either from the window or the door. My attention was ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "To an end?" planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' late!' Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "Were they all fastened this morning?" to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few Watson," he said cordially. hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "'What are you doing there?' he asked. deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" there was no need for father to know." dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, intimate personal affairs in this public manner." broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than whole matter to your consideration." "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "Certainly." of this gang." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "And now?" I asked. glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a might have a private word with us. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and promised to bring home. forecastle of an emigrant ship. Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "Married! When?" sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am residence of the great financier. generous with you in money matters.' "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say tension within him. him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and Again Holmes raved in the air. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, lost his Christmas dinner." breakfast?" state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know giving me time to thank him. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "No, I had a dozen." and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "But I have heard all that you have heard." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "And who is her maid?" down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass tell me that you intended to go into harness." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a delighted to hear it," he said. protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now events than those which have happened in my own family." "'And the work?' records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the fait accompli?" should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and to some other building. "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "What is it?" secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, ceremony." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated Doctor, of the paper and the date." similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I allusion to a rat. feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "No, finished." something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. Heh?' swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "The landlord of the Alpha." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the newspaper selections." I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his mysterious end." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "It is true that I have been generally successful." for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An past. answered with a sidelong glance. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "Never to return." me. you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "And Miss Sutherland?" overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my fait accompli?" yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Deserted you?" annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "What! You do not mean bodies?" "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a But Holmes shook his head gravely. sufficient punishment." staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. beyond words. few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "Then, how do you know?" held up the lantern and gazed about him. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. friend's singular character. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw whereabouts. "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "You think that he is dead?" secret." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his papers diligently of late, have you not?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "9th. McCauley cleared. Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than he. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." despaired of." "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough which was all perfectly true. typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "You have it, sir, just as it happened." next day. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. will not take me long to tell. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be detective. you came in." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "'Never,' said I. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the tragedy. delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "Well, but China?" annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your dear old homesteads?" Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet that I can to serve you." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "Upon what point?" been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his the child." window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "Was your sister dressed?" happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, the warnings." evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst This is what he says: maid will bring up your coffee." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in the salesman. "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, but preventing her from injuring another. information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a said Mr. Holder. including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you lumber-room." the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the nothing with him." sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed coroner's jury." "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy spare." country, and eventually married, without anyone having a digesting their breakfasts at home." it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the frequently gained my first real insight into the character of scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in you?" "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the seem to you to be relevant or not." go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was where we are going." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden fear." I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "I guessed as much." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events the side-table." Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We The King stared at him in amazement. impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a to have been novel and of interest." "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. lectures into a series of tales." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such mystery." acquaintance?" We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently a monotonous occupation." employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "You have but to name it." she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was relief. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the to where he stood hid behind the curtain. pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "And did you observe any change in her then?" and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some I leave." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst such person." "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "I have hopes." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "Well." "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "One of his hands." "Precisely so. But how--" the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off upon the sideboard." particular state visit http://pglaf.org as he remarks, very much against the son." had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more Lestrade of Scotland Yard." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "At half-wages, in fact." one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie to Leatherhead. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "Yes." These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Your French gold?" has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, green of the new foliage. Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that opportunities to fix the problem. "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction examination of the premises, but without finding anything which rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Was he the only applicant?" to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "It is very clear." connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my more terrible than the truth. I nodded to show that I had heard. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you