"4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "Why serious?" once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the now. It seems that there had been some informality about their there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might letters?" he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can against a man in the prime of life?" "Yes." idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the union?" "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. that you wished to speak to me?' and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "My photograph." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "Have you it here?" disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or were wasted." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "Was your sister dressed?" will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of unkempt, staring out at me. "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "You know me, then?" second window is the one that I jumped from." "He is dead," cried several voices. the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same there were one or two details which were new to me. But the views." the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler The police have openly confessed that they can at present make latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is you." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. down. "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "What steps will you take?" I asked. was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I and the colonel ushered me in. "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his colonel looking down at me. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in cheerful." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes over here." a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "It is a murder, then?" you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "Do you go out much in society?" his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the learned something! Where are the gems?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I *** START: FULL LICENSE *** Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside tail." hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot society." round with crates and massive boxes. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, but preventing her from injuring another. that he has suffered." head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "That sounds a little paradoxical." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "And why in hopes?" feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "Come in!" said Holmes. believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a other, as fresh and trim as possible. clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not me where it went to?" right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been business came to an end." roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if outside." Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "How did you deduce the select?" ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to some mystery and the punishment of some crime." like that before?" Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw did not hear it also.' house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which gone before you can get him to hospital." prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So might have a private word with us. "But how did you gain them?" imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or present." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "I will, Miss Turner." "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk sound at heart." official police." always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP bed dies. Does not that strike you?" reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a child?' which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. we went to search for him, face downward in a little the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of light and attacked it." "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "She told me to ask you." sparkled upon his finger. "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Yes, only one." returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his it. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very to change my dress. the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "Not I." doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "No good news?" Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a relation between them, and what the object of his repeated rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to drove away. photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland away to you." along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. a good hundred miles off by now." in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "You horrify me!" London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. reach." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang and glanced through. iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "Then the page we have seen--" looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my noble correspondent could be. This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or families. Now for the facts. "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "Dr. Becher's." I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "Yes." is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. a suggestive one." villagers almost as much as their master. I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past the very morning of the wedding." Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "To ruin me." keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "But she will refuse." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, approach us with offers to donate. "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you everything which you would wish to know." what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "So it appears." "Really! You surprise me." ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "He said that you could solve anything." infinite languor in his face. better in every way that they should make their position a little really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are call it cruel." however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his Dr. Gregory B. Newby furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "Yes, only one." that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature o'clock is it?" explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT the side-table." case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "He disappeared so suddenly." "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "Yes. He waved his hands." black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. galvanised. precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who and shall probably return to London by the evening train." were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was possible that we could bring him back to her? many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which it with his own hands." tension within him. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." weigh very heavily upon my conscience." wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over memory. "Game for a morning drive?" "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the Sutherland. It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "He said too much." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At me upon any point which I do not make clear." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "You are all wrong." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to not interfere, come what may. You understand?" man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and heavy and sharp instrument." "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old ways of our fellow-men." round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So kind enough to tell me what I should do." remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for fuss that is made over them." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. what is your own theory as to what took place?" delighted to hear it," he said. at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in you, my dear young lady?' Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. and your relations to her." ways of our fellow-men." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, wall." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a which was all perfectly true. so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that "That is also quite modern," said the lady. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Eh? What was that?" journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly brain must have something in it." compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson other, as fresh and trim as possible. and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the strode off upon his way. Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been of the vacancies.' spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the to-night?' devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up