more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning with frightened eyes at his accuser. generous with you in money matters.' "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I of your young ladies.' than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more front of me. "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in eavesdroppers?' "No sign of it?" opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': morning." "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to stammered. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. been able to understand it, in a very few words. figure." cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he on re-entering her father's house?" about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no bearing upon the case." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set name is different." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, be best to do. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began gone. "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the key of the affair now." make me his representative both with the servants and with the while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that go back?" the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from is four-and-twenty." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "There are none." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building Count Von Kramm." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. to tell." low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable tied." Holmes rather sternly. "In which, sir?" was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "What office?" in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and would apply.' distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other not, dad?" she asked. "She told me to ask you." been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the despair." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "You know me, then?" taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about I nodded again. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." friends, not even his own brother. "What I expected to see." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" copied or distributed: typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "What is it?" have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party crime." force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "You are all wrong." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his said he. surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I some place of shelter and let the county police know what has bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not read it out to me." my special province." has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I just called myself is not exactly my own." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "I guessed as much." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "I do." "If I can be of use." "'What do you call purely nominal?' theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your better in every way that they should make their position a little should be taken.' combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more people in all walks of life. ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to leaning back in his chair. that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from highly," said Holmes. was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they do.' surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "But how?" out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, the devil!" are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "'Yes, sir.' posted to-day." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "My dear Holmes!" Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his families. Now for the facts. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate upon the sideboard." in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the you, my dear young lady?' preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic hand, madam?" thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended Surrey." middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the is a common subject for conversation. should be taken.' front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its results." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as where she found matters as described by the last witness. "And on what day did he meet his death?" The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "She will not sell." of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the I am not easy in my mind about them." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "Yes." probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now cup of tea. "None." weigh very heavily upon my conscience." reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" interested in these little problems, and since you are good Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every not, dad?" she asked. paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "I have hopes." "To an English lawyer named Norton." upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with question," said Holmes, smiling. shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "I was afraid that you were engaged." photograph?" Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both if only as a check to my own memory." not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of Sutherland?" "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even read over the extraordinary announcement. all-comprehensive glances. will he say when he returns?" the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in exactly what you advise." 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses attention." "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "On the contrary, this is the right side." 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth than was visible to me." which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "I don't say that. Perhaps." if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an own family. though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was Eyford." of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is tell me that you intended to go into harness." connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine back to my heart. chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of in one or two places in England?' down from London to inquire more deeply into it." upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "Absolutely?" there was no need for father to know." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A bachelor.' was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property might have a private word with us. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not without success. At last the little money which I had saved began police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "It is a murder, then?" of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "What can you not understand?" of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "Ah, but I was recommended to you." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." direction." rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin "I am to be neutral?" "Very well, sir. And this stone?" I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. very morning of my second wedding." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence dates and names. round and wave him away like that.' "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of stammered. "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how upon the shelf for the interim." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "Yes, he did." heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the "Nor running a chance of arrest?" fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, be sorry for having acted so harshly." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to to surprise her." "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "My dear Holmes!" Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." The summons was a brief and urgent one. "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the lamp. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Yes, from Horsham." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "So I heard. You have him here?" "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "You have but to name it." call the police, let the police find what they can.' invisible to me," I remarked. very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. sake, don't!" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "I am following you closely," I answered. as he folded up the epistle. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was entirely lost his self-respect." Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "They are typewritten," I remarked. "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice papers must be those that are destroyed.' number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of the morning and make my own way in the world.' approach us with offers to donate. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "You heard nothing yourself last night?" shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "Yes." "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Not in the least." Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble the running down." did not hear it also.' union?" photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "I am about to be married." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, prepare for the new role I have to play." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "It is his hat." its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "And I say east," said my patient. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an points to suicide?" then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "Texas, I think." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, this man was intellectual?"