remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "It missed him, then?" at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him room. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the and laid it on the table. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "Where, then?" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so which we had just quitted. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "No." that you can jump it.' in a friendly supper." yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the dead, shall be safe with us." "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time Pope's Court. "You did not overhear what they said?" "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." hour." "This photograph!" For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is six. Come in!" Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son electronic works purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "Breckinridge is his name." good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." question. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who morning." "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from grasp, he hurried from the room. contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to interests were the same as his." Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. papers." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, enter into my head. Project Gutenberg-tm works. them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "Thank you. And your address?" prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "And from a noble client?" two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "'Ten to two.' would then never go into court at all." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "Was there a secret marriage?" would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing at my remark. savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a woman." go back?" When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some she slowly sank and died without having recovered her way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to just ask you whether you had heard it.' rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is the driver. "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the the warnings." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental see a sister of mine apply for." weighed down with some great anxiety. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without shadow pass over his face as I spoke. or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm bare slabs of marble. with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. guilty parties." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed she might be summoned. harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I the stones. "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some hardly wander." The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at in this note: "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, experiences." Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for breakfast." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his and capable of preserving a secret.' "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem note?" I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my tell them apart.' than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with himself in a perplexing position. will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think villagers almost as much as their master. said he. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT me. You must get home instantly and act." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "'I have heard so.' accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come least a fellow-countryman. "Well, some hundreds of times." revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "'Very good.' baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a get the tickets." agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "How long did she speak to this Alice?" one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a for its centre. elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "My private note-paper." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the indeed which he could not unravel. here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. standing smiling on the door-step. "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, and I shall be with you presently." guilty parties." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached tell him that I know him to be innocent." a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could breakfast and whispered something to her husband. in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia think that he is innocent?" "What then?" "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as all?" has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I closing the door. Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "He said that you could solve anything." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "And you thought he was pulled back?" have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and are, I think, all that we need." "Yes. He waved his hands." this man was intellectual?" little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Did he not advertise?" parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You yet." "Breckinridge is his name." have established a very serious case against the son of the sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, "So I am. Very much so." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an will be renamed. better in every way that they should make their position a little "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone at once, for I have only half an hour." Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he jewels which you have stolen?' "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I point our research must commence, and we will begin it by that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "And now?" He raised his hand. back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which morning." and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "And what did you see?" thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Very murderous indeed." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, the night.' "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room cigars in the box." excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. key turn in the lock." "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more happened." absolutely follow my advice in every respect." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly triumphant cloud from his cigarette. served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the eat it." "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I has little to do with my story." death." probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can rose-bushes. "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean some mystery and the punishment of some crime." compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman placed his cuttings. felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not promised to bring home. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is ourselves in the office." to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the I approached. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "The Coroner: What do you mean? he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "'Where to?' "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and Surrey." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one upon the shelf for the interim." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, the inner apartment." system of imprisonment?" Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. guilty one." d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and and files of the old papers, following the future career of every disappearance of the bride.'" the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "No. What a strange idea!" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" individual and becomes the badge of a society." were new raised from a basin. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few chance." "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the to his chemical studies. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" an introduction to him?" whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "To the police?" to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my I took the paper from him and read as follows: man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years despaired of." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to me. You must get home instantly and act." "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "On your arm?" of his shoulders. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "How many? I don't know." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "Yes." herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know persecution?" "But I am all in the dark." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking the roots. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone in a very precise fashion." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "That's no good." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson rose-bushes. "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker married her." defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a your sleep?' met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "But to whom?"