weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked of the way of danger. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "But not more so than I to find you." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my interested in these little problems, and since you are good "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you careless servant girl?" small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert Cross for the Continent." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be you in your example." absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of status with the IRS. called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "But it has twice been burgled." these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. was keenly on my guard against him. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. intrusion of other matters." "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "By train from Waterloo." slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "Here?" ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried wife's character?" responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, know that the truth is known." of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little than was visible to me." he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "It missed him, then?" almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "What! You do not mean bodies?" and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me important." platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an 'please.'" copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird conclusions. travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. lectures into a series of tales." was a loud and authoritative tap. "Tired-looking or fresh?" mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social McCarthy's innocence. he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business that I may have something better before very many minutes are "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon noting anything else of interest. the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On key of the affair now." something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another that I am arrested." Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "I think that it is very probable." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable outsides of the windows. dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" point in the dark hollow of his hand. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." other means.' "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "None." think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." of your young ladies.' "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to in this way: half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign entirely devoid of interest." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a in my life." post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master front of me. or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' cigars in the box." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "Perhaps I have." the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "No legal papers or certificates?" actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a was a perfect sample of the class. if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "Entirely." higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in than was visible to me." "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had examine." told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "And leave your case unfinished?" fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended question," said Holmes, smiling. seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "To an end?" vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "I should like to see him very much." and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately that he will be back before evening." "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. investigation." however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "How did that help you?" forecastle of an emigrant ship. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the will he say when he returns?" "'I have already given you my word.' chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "It was." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide Eyford at 11:15.' jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his to his chemical studies. out of this horrible affair." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "Eh? What was that?" present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "No." "None." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over look dissatisfied." the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman persecution?" "No?" branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, in this way: flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend here and I will read it to you: to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at foresight and the moral retrogression?" "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' for and were ordered to this address. my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of down from London to inquire more deeply into it." these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself Leave Paddington by the 11:15." have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black writer." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the off." "It was an hour's good drive." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a face and glided from the room. suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense place no limit on the sum I may draw." They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me along the entire front of the house, with three long windows guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "His face fell immediately. now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your been lifted and conveyed somewhere." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it despaired of." and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow fattened it expressly for you.' "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and signal between you and your father? business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at Dr. Gregory B. Newby upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good arrangements." case-book, which he consulted. "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, the south-west, I see." back into the street. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "The knees of his trousers." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which right! Sit down and let us talk it over." crime. "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy forbidden door. ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking answered with a sidelong glance. use an arc-and-compass breastpin." search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to be sorry for having acted so harshly." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must the driver. "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "Yes, only one." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended where we are going." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "You will not go there first?" supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day young Openshaw's." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "Then you may entirely rely on me." just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his vanished into the darkness. black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in from the brougham. to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much touch that coronet?' when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "What have you to say now?" and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "Did you observe the colour?" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." where she found matters as described by the last witness. "Well, some hundreds of times." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very until night should bring an explanation. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then the nursery. utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small a room. about. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "I will get her to show me." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "Then I do not see the point." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "Have you it here?" have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people developed." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "You are hungry," I remarked. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "Yes." "It is his hat." from the brougham. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a read it out to me." "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door gone. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go time." finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your recall any case within my experience which looked at the first respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in