http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly she has been waylaid. There has been no result." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. of them has the shutters up.' "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no giving me time to thank him. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery quite distinctive." "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "That also I could fathom." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the few hundred pounds.' in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make man. "One horse?" interjected Holmes. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir but preventing her from injuring another. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "What?" quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he go back?" Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of so.' governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by fattened it expressly for you.' that you saw all that I did." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his delighted to hear it," he said. hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" felt?" sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the papers on the sundial.'" eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "My private note-paper." "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. my friend's incisive reasoning. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go Stoke Moran." "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "I shall be delighted." would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "But he might be a bachelor." be best to do. "Yes, all." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "I will do it." "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I neither fascinating nor artistic." "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. thin legs towards the fire. back into the street. "Won't it ring?" However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered should be taken.' happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "No, I am descending." "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in minor matters until to-morrow." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming very peculiar words of the dying woman?" past. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a I was concerned in it." there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, late!' down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear questioning and rather startled gaze. wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could question," said Holmes, smiling. with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have bears upon the case?" some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it ago." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the to-night?' you." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. go from here to the Strand." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She the Assizes." somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." clang of the bell. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and pictures, libraries, or plate. for and were ordered to this address. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without you." the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering populous neighbourhood." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." walking." nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa vague figure huddled up in the darkness. gone before you can get him to hospital." whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get or other trace. But how on earth--" any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "Perhaps we may make them less so." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his upon a handsome competence. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "That you are never beaten." step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We highroad, where all traces were lost. This is what he says: "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet the house with me." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be straightened it out again. "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm ventilator." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it him, that man would not have given me such complete information understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much bled considerably." his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and enough to aid us in our search." follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." your Highness to the police-station?" that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." little trying to do so much typewriting?" story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, returning from some small jollification and was making his way "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "One?" everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it trifles." the side-table." narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. she to prove their authenticity?" that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the the morning and make my own way in the world.' "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee both be extremely obliged.' A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently possible that we could bring him back to her? unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the could not account in any way for the presence of the missing offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his room. it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "None." "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from furiously. "'Certainly not. But why?' "Nothing?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is on in his house." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his carpenter." The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "Your French gold?" "Not him." one which it was hard to resist. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number there." indeed happy." man. I know him from the photograph." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "The landlord of the Alpha." bird of prey. "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "Did your wife hear all this?" he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "It is true that I have been generally successful." set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this seven miles from Eyford Station.' photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "I cannot say that I have." "Certainly." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house been shamefully used." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in it." hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "At what time?" instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without simple cases which are so extremely difficult." gone. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." hard-headed British jury." "Your presence might be invaluable." heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an few hundred pounds.' I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. his face which made him a very different person to the round, giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and to take care of herself." down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused address. "He might." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. sneer upon his pale face. "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered it." "Upon what point?" left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. point in the dark hollow of his hand. a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a door?" manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is you understand?" "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "ARAT," I read. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a the station." It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. congratulate you again." to that open window." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Of Friday, June 19th." "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Ha! you find it so?" should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as Pope's Court, Fleet Street." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in Dr. Gregory B. Newby "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "Only as much as we can deduce." his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "They are typewritten," I remarked. the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his congenial hunt. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy horse could go." unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or province." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I outbreak?" "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "Deserted you?" his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there key turn in the lock." minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the it with his own hands." "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "You think that he is dead?" Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." of Fenchurch Street." paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "Is he quiet?" "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering and put his glass in his pocket. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "Your presence might be invaluable." papers diligently of late, have you not?" metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to be.' this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael third from London." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, the devil!" may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I of it with the greatest attention. "ARAT," I read. is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy beyond words. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would to tell." at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or the stable lane now." "Of Friday, June 19th." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at