our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited the one as in the other." on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some you." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "Frequently." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "What is it?" "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical speckled band?" "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "Where did you address your letters, then?" direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which Miss Holder?" considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your of this gang." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, with you alone." himself to hunt down. appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "I cannot think." on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person outsides of the windows. in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "Very much so." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the closely." received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "So I heard. You have him here?" from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would tail." sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept disappearance of the bride.'" through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, call for it in person on Monday morning.' life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the and it need not interfere very much with one's other another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their the stones. believe that I should never have any practice at all. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," shadow pass over his face as I spoke. eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "My Mary? Impossible!" ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not closely." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in which was all perfectly true. the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "Did your wife hear all this?" I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the to-night's adventure." "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "Do you go out much in society?" his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a new duties?' lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I bachelor.' Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "But how did you gain them?" "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "'Yes, sir.' preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start breakfast." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not the iron safe, which he closed upon it. words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "I know where it is." charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, Serpentine Avenue. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if passage and a tap at the door. I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "I cannot tell." of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." this as likely?" in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "'Quite sure, dad.' Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "Yes?" nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "Oh, fresh and glossy." "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "But his lameness?" better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "No sign of it?" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right to affect your life." might help us?" "Yes, there are nearly always some there." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it "Yes, at the mines." "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." woman." dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "I have a cab outside." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the back alive. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a very old mansion. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that about here speaks of his kindness to him." ordinary clothes on?" "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to useful material for showing traces. The double line a little leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and residence of the great financier. one which it was hard to resist. shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to http://www.gutenberg.net than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "Thank you. Pray proceed." simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "My Mary? Impossible!" the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal as noiselessly as she had come. terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it locked. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have His smile broadened. he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began the child." have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the is four-and-twenty." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is breakfast." "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. in his hands." "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have the nursery. money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass as this. Pray let me have the details." "Well." Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "And the cigar-holder?" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "I will, Miss Turner." Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a bird I ate is country bred." "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "An accident, I presume?" years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" at my remark. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which present." "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by overpowering excitement and concern. son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was not, dad?" she asked. "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Not particularly." good for you to do.' "That was it, sir." seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called than was visible to me." street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the father's place of business?" "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "No, finished." to his chemical studies. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your chair. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. I leave." "Your French gold?" misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds visitors." "9th. McCauley cleared. "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "And when will you call?" been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case the night.' fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "No, thank goodness, she did not." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted where Mr. Fordham shows you.' this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "And how did you verify them?" "There is the writing." depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, Watson," he said cordially. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the chamber." very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "'Is 4 pounds a week.' Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "Then I shall certainly come." like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime in. murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are bachelor.' "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me his forehead." States. you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "'And what salary do you ask?' have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the out." distance from the station, and there we found the young lady Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "'Why that?' I asks. "Won't it ring?" he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting eavesdroppers?' shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a could not have written that. It is the German who is so the salesman. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, will take you up to see the machine.' equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In have an American origin." is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather very old mansion. but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "Your presence might be invaluable." brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "He said too much." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that take the flies, but not before." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "How often?" as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the off." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his to affect your life." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the papers diligently of late, have you not?" "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down Henry Baker is a member." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might searched, without anything being found which could incriminate station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. some terrible trap for her." "'And the work?' so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the closely." "Then the page we have seen--" "What then?" may never be exposed to such a temptation." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "Stoke Moran?" said he. a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "And the cigar-holder?" looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in directors, with the result that you have seen." sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' she used." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, walking." question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the girl said." and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that time." description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "How can you tell that?" o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a fluttered off among the others. husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," it means?" suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now away to you." would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "I am still in the dark." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "But how will you look?" And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than