of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "'Yes, sir.' Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody thirty. Watson," he said cordially. Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms shaken than I had ever seen him. with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this society." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of her also." clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining the address that was given us in the advertisement. wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than very peculiar words of the dying woman?" total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then never to learn it at all." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, feature." "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "How did you trace it, then?" Sutherland?" "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter man. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "My photograph." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp notes," he said. purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "My dear Holmes!" I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Not in the least." admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any suggested at once that there must be a communication between the sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. charged with?" forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel know that the truth is known." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a Dr. Gregory B. Newby black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with IS "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which points in connection with it which never have been, and probably married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will followed. said he. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly his fortune, and I went back to pa. dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I "It goes to the housekeeper's room." stammered. occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" appointment with me for six o'clock?" more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "Have you it here?" same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon you understand?" possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I hair?' the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. yourselves in at night?" drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "My private note-paper." which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of grasp, he hurried from the room. means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "What have you to say now?" tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," to that open window." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he without a word or a look. respectable self." "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, Holmes. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "My opinion is in no way altered." "And how in the world did you find them?" form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which was it brought him the coronet? "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "I am about to be married." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, one else, I think." of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those bears upon the case?" "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it carried out of court." public press." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "Why did you beat the pavement?" "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as leave you to your papers for a little." for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the that I may have something better before very many minutes are strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" from the brougham. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Never." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which a room. eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, way in everything. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, and laid it on the table. much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between take the flies, but not before." and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, as he folded up the epistle. Holmes' room. "Two days later this same performance was gone through under luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "Your French gold?" "To an English lawyer named Norton." was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of round with crates and massive boxes. greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a through." For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the the driver. "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." observed. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "No, thank goodness, she did not." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did guilty parties." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "You were travelling in the States?" new acquaintance to Baker Street. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "Then I am your man." kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of suggested at once that there must be a communication between the in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Stolen, then." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." investigation." theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "You are certainly joking, Holmes." professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric through." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife there was no need for father to know." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "And for present expenses?" fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" crackling voice. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." photograph?" other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "Certainly, madam." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall but preventing her from injuring another. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other said he, "my real name is James Ryder." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project several quiet little villages up there." the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "Nothing." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "You were travelling in the States?" I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. garden below. father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "Oh, fresh and glossy." "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "This concluded the examination of the witness." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing Project Gutenberg-tm works. be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." some mystery and the punishment of some crime." direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a mystery." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew Mrs. Toller serenely. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "'It is locked up,' I answered. him and tried to hold him back. "It is very clear." she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have there in twenty minutes." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. indeed happy." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming skylight. conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "She told me to ask you." here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure tassel actually lying upon the pillow. to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "I think it very unlikely." "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. in my life." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "What! Had he lost his wife?" the driver. is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, ventilator." "Then I can wait in the next room." flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had in a friendly supper." gives a meaning to it." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a purpose of examination. "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "A thing like a cleaver," said he. and your relations to her." John Swain, of St. Augustine. might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my already referred to. saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "It is solved." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they remarked. resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to other lovers by making love himself." was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As hereditary King of Bohemia." reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "To the police?" "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone This is what he says: "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "And the cigar-holder?" "You have but to name it." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to distinguish the words: mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near father's young wife. that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at trifles." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he ways including including checks, online payments and credit card past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." Miss Holder?" assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement You want to know what became of those geese?" waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my occupations.' "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and important." must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you detained." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a giving me time to thank him. married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their matter over." mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "You are hungry," I remarked. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked for securing the situation." with her." perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "Her father is very rich?" as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "Nothing." following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?"