in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is name is different." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "Has he come with you to-night?" upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "Always." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips said he. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the garden below. unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and voice. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb unprofitable." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have was it brought him the coronet? "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "My last client of the sort was a king." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "I don't say that. Perhaps." just ask you whether you had heard it.' have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true little trying to do so much typewriting?" the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of ran thus: He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, in the dead of the night?' glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to derbies." "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I fact, we may call it conclusive." "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's him nearly every evening." you, my dear young lady?' contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this following enigmatical notices: "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the them?" your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are tapping his fingers upon the table. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider papers." little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect name is different." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is sufficient punishment." afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "'Never.' "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the discontent upon his features. but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my some water from a caraffe. dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set Holmes' face clouded over. feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "No, my brougham is waiting." upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "She will not sell." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that the room while you explain this matter?" we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "By train from Waterloo." that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his me what he had done with the three missing stones. "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon following enigmatical notices: upon the sideboard." and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally know what is wrong with it.' you do it in twenty minutes!' landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods woven round him. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more as this. Pray let me have the details." when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "Pray do so." uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their whereabouts. d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "'Oh, no.' broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any row." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. giving me time to thank him. Holmes' face clouded over. seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "I see many objections to any such theory." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I maid will bring up your coffee." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "Where is it, then?" wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands Leadenhall Street--and--" extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "And what did you learn from him?" upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction individual and becomes the badge of a society." I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales your only hope of safety." "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "Perfectly so." the Friday. Was it to be in church?" them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "She told me to ask you." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for giving me time to thank him. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "Nothing." tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite head. So long, then!" and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would ago." "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary Arthur Conan Doyle quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact fasten all the windows?" shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that held up the lantern and gazed about him. police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "I shall be delighted." drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since little trying to do so much typewriting?" and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." system of imprisonment?" deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "Will you bet, then?" this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. with you?" stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with criminal. We have already had experience of such." cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "My dear Holmes!" he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a individual and becomes the badge of a society." the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. if only as a check to my own memory." to some other building. upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his McCarthy's innocence. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the furiously. pressing in one house as in another. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled that he will be back before evening." go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which do you make of it all?" "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "She showed me, as I told you she would." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a words came to my lips. the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "'You doubt its value?' he asked. round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after as he folded up the epistle. "'Oh, no.' especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did could go. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he bonnet, and went out." strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and in his hands." chemical work which was so dear to him. tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the existence." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are so far?" that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "Pray continue your narrative." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very knowledge of the world." were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I placed his cuttings. "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, already referred to. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' that he has suffered." a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. you for a few hours?" heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "But I have heard all that you have heard." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I leaning back in his chair. "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's to me. for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "At half-wages, in fact." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my hair?' in him." and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and himself to hunt down. high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "'Very good.' inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** seem to you to be relevant or not." Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "I warn you that they are very incomplete." fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." towards the blaze. "I see many objections to any such theory." I took the paper from him and read as follows: public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster room?" crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, lids now and glanced across at his visitor. that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the not as remarkable as your advertisement." dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of that the gas is not laid on in his house?" creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project from you?" "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a McCarthy's innocence. "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man than was visible to me." hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "I will get her to show me." there was no need for father to know." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John him and tried to hold him back. "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His in the dead of the night?' lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "What have you done?" asked Holmes. number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can murdered man." compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless some place of shelter and let the county police know what has half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure there was no need for father to know." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "I cannot as yet see any connection." "'Where could I find him?' to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "Will you bet, then?" without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, better grown goose." few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern."