"Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "Frequently." about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a man. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." room?" Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in promised to bring home. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, gentleman's clothes. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a union?" sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but unprofitable." away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment conversation I have gathered that they have been married about in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you this poor creature." collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to some place of shelter and let the county police know what has most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the crackling voice. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those call it cruel." "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to certainly not very gracious." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he is," said he presently: kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every there in twenty minutes." Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it fatally injured? this poor creature." matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well few hundred pounds.' bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had figure." flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some we went to search for him, face downward in a little the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed of fine shops and stately business premises that they really can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "Of what day?" Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "I assure you that I am in your hands." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "But his left-handedness." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I humiliation." morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "And how in the world did you find them?" License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "I assure you that I am in your hands." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "The Cedars?" has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents forecastle of an emigrant ship. "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "And I." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for in this note: you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "But of what society?" "No, finished." "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "'What, the red-headed man?' "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman get her out of the way." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "But not more so than I to find you." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept nothing of it?" as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "Pray let us have it, for all that." status with the IRS. air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to questioning and rather startled gaze. twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "By train from Waterloo." "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return Surrey." "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "Yes, it was twisted." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but second." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "No." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, straightened it out again. harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that notes," he said. "Was he the only applicant?" correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman subject to the trademark license, especially commercial as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "I know where it is." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us Mary, has deserted me." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and your troubles." smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "In San Francisco, a year ago." tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "Nothing?" The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "Entirely." me." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said just called myself is not exactly my own." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive absolutely follow my advice in every respect." that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left during which he might have communicated with his friend the "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my my friend's incisive reasoning. the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming and it need not interfere very much with one's other new acquaintance to Baker Street. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would the King without delay." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little particular state visit http://pglaf.org "Pray do so." not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the directly by questioning you." "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "What shall I do?" you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the have established a very serious case against the son of the continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it touch that coronet?' firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to face and glided from the room. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in attention." nothing with him." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "Bought." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough relation between them, and what the object of his repeated unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner chance at all." "At what time?" situation." I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do foot. "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my done what I asked you, Jones?" fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "She showed me, as I told you she would." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was that he has suffered." companion imperturbably. The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves crackling voice. bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and http://www.gutenberg.net way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "Of what?" What do you deduce from it?" writer." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "And why?" "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I narrative." introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been used to be." where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging tied." charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the other means.' perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, criminal. We have already had experience of such." "Then he might have called to you?" thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew upon an income of about 60 pounds." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he entirely devoid of interest." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which article?" creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she my room." so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that threw himself down with his face to the pillow. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "I think that it is very probable." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in to-night?" I asked. "It's nothing of the kind." Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first throat." that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent where Mr. Fordham shows you.' himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "Certainly." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin charged with?" character. my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "You will not go there first?" year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much way: "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." papers diligently of late, have you not?" This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. always that they were such commands as a lady might with to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had ways including including checks, online payments and credit card had formerly been in part my own. prepare for the new role I have to play." a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "Thank you. Pray proceed." engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he what do you think they found in the pockets?" other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "What do you make of that, Watson?" and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "Well, some hundreds of times." THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some congenial hunt. "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much against a man in the prime of life?" secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return this unhappy family?" giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the the driver. determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of system of imprisonment?" only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey galvanised. be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I looking up at the numbers of the houses." the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an digesting their breakfasts at home." The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "'Which dealer's?' "By no means." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon Sutherland?" "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man be. "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little neither fascinating nor artistic." "I shall most certainly do so." hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either sparkled upon his finger. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the kind enough to tell me what I should do." "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your