and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less his knees, staring into the fire. "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "'You doubt its value?' he asked. you want, then?' "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery over part of the map. "What do you read?" "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" over with notes and figures. "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his like that before?" dramatic, in fact." My friend smiled. "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but out." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my if only as a check to my own memory." front of me. since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for Street. "I was mad--insane." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in leaning back in his chair. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I galvanised. "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles only touch the interest." work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning at once, for I have only half an hour." the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to know that the truth is known." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the prepare for the new role I have to play." her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "I am in hopes that she does." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible disturbance in my wife." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of you?' only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was colonel looking down at me. "And how?" whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, was shining brightly. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how delirious. air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "You think that he is dead?" without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' States. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the breakfast?" I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, little adventures." the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to must compliment you." examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, away into the river." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no with some details as to your case." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding fishes. will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "But how will you look?" "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "To an English lawyer named Norton." has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the girl said." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure persecution?" the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. whereabouts. "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He fashion which was peculiar to him. lamp. on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "Witness: It was. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "The vanishing of the lady." province." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in had formerly been in part my own. red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the knowledge of the world." "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would heavily into it. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," which should have the effect of calling the attention of the Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke at my own good fortune. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to in darkness. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door spare." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with imbecility!" he cried. address. "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "She walked into the breakfast-room." buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about meant it for the best. waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered peculiar to him. used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "Always." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to in the port of London." the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same considering the formidable letters which were received by himself pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, at my remark. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry I nodded again. "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key to talk it over. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what of this gang." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child of the one which your family is now devouring." red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "My photograph." It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "Then what has happened to him?" hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. eavesdroppers?' company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had character. Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a where she found matters as described by the last witness. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "It must be recovered." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "Nothing?" "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" means taking possession of that which another person has a prior upon the sideboard." "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the her also." cigars in the box." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "I have solved it." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "What! You do not mean bodies?" could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect asked with his eyes open. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "Certainly." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, one of them." certainly not very gracious." "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "That is not always so easy." "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should where she found matters as described by the last witness. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, becomes even more simple." very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common Have you good authority for what you say?" "To an end?" Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other some mystery and the punishment of some crime." hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "A client, then?" "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "The murder was done with it." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "BALLARAT." "It looks newer than the other things?" to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "'Where could I find him?' utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "By train from Waterloo." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face you." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and any more." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "I have seen the police." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of against a man in the prime of life?" call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed he. suspect him." and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is Farm upon the left." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square annoyance, but no jest. "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "The gentleman I describe." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the chair. my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. to tackle the facts." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "Not social, then?" It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker burst out into a roar of laughter. an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "I am in hopes that she does." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the people in all walks of life. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are foot. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never beg that you will break it off." breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." upon a handsome competence. dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." Project Gutenberg-tm works. sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point the room while you explain this matter?" you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely ourselves in the office." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down floor. "He said too much." his huge brown hands. "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in down. like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, new duties?' he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another had picked up in the wood. "You think so, too?" dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked tied." "To an English lawyer named Norton." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt quick march!" security.' "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when Pool. "Certainly." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My conclusions. Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "Then he might have called to you?" other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "You have it, sir, just as it happened." hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "You forget that I know nothing about it." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning relation between them, and what the object of his repeated downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "What do you make of that, Watson?" Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." bachelor.' and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "No, I am descending." "I have solved it." "How are you getting on?" little adventures." him and tried to hold him back. "The vanishing of the lady." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them fact, we may call it conclusive." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "What will you do, then?" "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "I shall be delighted." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "Tired-looking or fresh?" once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' that you saw all that I did." "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "I would give my fortune to have them back." fatally injured? "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after soul! here is her carriage at the door." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his young Openshaw's." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down go back?" how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the row." Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both once more on the important position which you have been fortunate and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was papers." such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general locked." elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes ways of our fellow-men." silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do stalked out of the room. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his him to be an active member of the medical profession." and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had held up the lantern and gazed about him. You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "No." window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual the King without delay." "None. Neville wrote those words." "I think it very unlikely." the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, than to us. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "No, but the enclosure is." gone. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "What have you done?" asked Holmes. the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I Lee, in the county of Kent." quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads until night should bring an explanation. You want to know what became of those geese?" overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a could gather together that I was able to avert another public the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "But she could not love him."