The note was undated, and without either signature or address. lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some wedding?" which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and straightened it out again. "He disappeared so suddenly." "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' them, and came down just as you departed. He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out grasp, he hurried from the room. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in and it need not interfere very much with one's other "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, chill to my heart. "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could is," said he presently: and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We this poor creature." homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "Ample." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales correct than the official force." the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that politicians who had been sent down from the North. and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian My friend smiled. Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical prisoner's face. shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, were unconscious?" rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "'What then?' I asked. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings indiscretion." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I the roots. prison!" to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to upon the white wrist. town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the in his power. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. The telegram which we eventually received came late one night home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near as noiselessly as she had come. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second murdered man." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and indiscretion." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a examine." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "Always." eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the writer." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "Yes, from Horsham." business?" leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "Come in!" said he. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "I say it is." outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. to-night's adventure." your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an plantation.' purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said will not take me long to tell. have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to tapping his fingers upon the table. records." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part crime." you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of experiences." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "That is possible." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not III. "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather public press." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by better grown goose." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself "Never." "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, that, and I came down." such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the there is a decided draught." glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that there is a decided draught." "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "Then how many are there?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an our word." past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut never to learn it at all." that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." John Swain, of St. Augustine. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "My stepfather's business papers." his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. "Yes, the wine-cellar." commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a had a long day." which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the his grey eyes. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "Then I do not see the point." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the secret." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had DAMAGE. "You horrify me!" until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards said he. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "Ah!" "No, but the enclosure is." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "I have come for advice." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he was already answered. "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a at home. fasten all the windows?" The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we depend upon your compliance." characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "It looks newer than the other things?" dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, to miss it." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "Can I be of assistance?" coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for "'And what salary do you ask?' "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "Where, then?" name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go you understand?" Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "'You cannot say what it was?' was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of correct than the official force." families. Now for the facts. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "But you have hopes?" along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "But the mystery?" object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "Pray do so." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon ways including including checks, online payments and credit card A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "But his left-handedness." "At what time?" bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until was used.' "How did you deduce the select?" We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "And from a noble client?" bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "He disappeared so suddenly." occurred." My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, back to my heart. too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to writers could invent nothing more crude." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite assist you in forming an opinion." lips." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. me, and I could not think that his explanation of the the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "And is that all?" shag which I had seen upon the previous night. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did other lovers by making love himself." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "Very well, sir. And this stone?" from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, became a certainty. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he followed. home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over train.' determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." mysterious end." "ARAT," I read. through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and enter into my head. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we about here speaks of his kindness to him." that, and I came down." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the begun to whiten, even as mine has." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, returning from some small jollification and was making his way pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "I never have." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the It may be so in this case, also." would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what there were so many in the whole country as were brought together asked. necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "To the police?" "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say been shamefully used." of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm the tragedy. held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave cost them two and thirty pounds." For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I goes." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then matter." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences look upon these things in a different way." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "I shall be delighted." intrusion of other matters." on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "Quite so." about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, not personally threatened." "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have happened." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "Precisely so. But how--" be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "'No, I know no one in these parts.' I nodded again. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties to change my dress. remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "'And what salary do you ask?' consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "But you can know nothing of this?" princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties Pope's Court. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not your co-operation." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "Upon what point?" "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true at once, for I have only half an hour." The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can was a loud and authoritative tap. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking matters immensely." is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me,