midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last that I can to serve you." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "'Yes.' on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "You'll never persuade me to believe that." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would 1.F. I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and you do it in twenty minutes!' to-night?' "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I back to my heart. would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "And you can do nothing until then?" the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "Then how many are there?" said Mr. Holder. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the power." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "'Most admirably.' and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "Can I be of assistance?" "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. seen the man in the road." "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. shoulder. as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? records." I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the on re-entering her father's house?" least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my of it with the greatest attention. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined that you wished to speak to me?' at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his you." at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a Clair, of Lee." upon the sideboard." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. amused." "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have late!' "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings points to suicide?" "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend you." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope beyond words. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the bed, and you in that chair." dramatic, in fact." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "Yes." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "I have solved it." such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "Yes. He waved his hands." "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "And now?" I asked. Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing sooner or later she must fall a victim. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' in the dead of the night?' shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or present." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the advice." smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "Yes, at the mines." "'Very good.' from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for already been minutely examined." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "Here?" "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. to change my dress. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here manager. little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," signal between you and your father? hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his any more." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "I beg pardon." that threaten you." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "Not I." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "It is to him that this trophy belongs." marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, generous with you in money matters.' cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just leave you to your papers for a little." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "Indeed! Whose, then?" higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain in the port of London." "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then Chief Executive and Director himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after are windows in it, of course?" glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "You horrify me!" been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are Cross for the Continent." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "It is his hat." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a showing my impatience. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may companion. appeared upon the scene." bird I ate is country bred." as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder correct than the official force." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood whereabouts. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "We have tried and failed." the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist breakfast." the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre room?" Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "And you thought he was pulled back?" what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the yards of it?' go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from awaited us upon the table. secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in his huge brown hands. I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of she slowly sank and died without having recovered her her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for over part of the map. "What do you read?" explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "None." been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike American. Then who could this American be, and why should he appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but that before taking the final step I should like to submit the great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his lost his Christmas dinner." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible your only hope of safety." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "And I." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "She showed me, as I told you she would." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a had this final quarrel? labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk fattened it expressly for you.' multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very Have you good authority for what you say?" We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "And I to find an enemy." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. husband's writing, madam." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "You'll never persuade me to believe that." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each perplexity from it to my illustrious client. rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "In what way?" asked Holmes. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your papers." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "What! Had he lost his wife?" "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or will be renamed. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest if I call to-morrow?" thirty. He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "At half-wages, in fact." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a subject to the trademark license, especially commercial twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious it right.' "But she could not love him." three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "And when will you call?" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "But you can know nothing of this?" can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "What will you do, then?" a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "I have solved it." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "Was there a secret marriage?" them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "Not in the least." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know down. and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "To an English lawyer named Norton." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "Very murderous indeed." wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "How do you know, then?" you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough handed it to him. very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little not interfere, come what may. You understand?" its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the least a most suspicious remark." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went cheerful." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "I promise," said Holmes. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached considering the formidable letters which were received by himself shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of me upon any point which I do not make clear." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, direction." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning said I. time." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," locked. "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in he bowed and left the room without another word. wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point that I can to serve you." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search the roots. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. ago." I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the business." method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open