221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" in the hope of finding them." up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. not within a twentieth part of the market price." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. during that time.' "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, him. which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "What do you mean?" Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was himself. possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "In the cells." he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I fish-monger and a tide-waiter." were new raised from a basin. Street. "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "Why did you beat the pavement?" column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks out of this horrible affair." III. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "How often?" your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was as noiselessly as she had come. conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day again." "It is no ordinary one." weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "Why, it's a dummy," said he. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then upon a handsome competence. The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." appointment with me for six o'clock?" letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "'Oh, no.' "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from bonnet, and went out." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day the window, rose as we entered. sit on the left-hand side of the driver." footfalls from the street. that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a been deceived." "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "Yes, from Horsham." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his as noiselessly as she had come. Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is during which he might have communicated with his friend the he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "I answered that I had not. "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And to that open window." sufficient punishment." There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "There are none." 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "Indeed! Whose, then?" confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a gives a meaning to it." key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "Yes, at the mines." lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his bed dies. Does not that strike you?" hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little observed. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." appeal." upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last locked." blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing may have an influence upon European history." unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him and capable of preserving a secret.' companion. downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would even so self-evident a thing as that." "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "'Entirely.' of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in empty. "So it appears." residence of the great financier. glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings weigh very heavily upon my conscience." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove three of the beryls in it, was missing. Street. and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Sutherland?" noting anything else of interest. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to indiscretion." "Well, but China?" "No bad?" in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most companion quietly. coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the hand, madam?" Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him papers." "Never to return." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not felt the room to be a little close.' matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "No legal papers or certificates?" observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His in. upon the shelf for the interim." "I guessed as much." in his power. reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "I am to be neutral?" train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little Holmes." own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." done what I asked you, Jones?" retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from few hundred pounds.' have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while there is a decided draught." child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "Yes." "My dear Holmes!" I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "No, I had a dozen." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be you." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "Certainly." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "Eh? What was that?" to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which events than those which have happened in my own family." of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, meant." silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "Here?" "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "'I have already given you my word.' interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots call the police, let the police find what they can.' cost them two and thirty pounds." paper in the air. in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own the stones. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle there has been an enclosure here!" "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." society." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "No." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg them?" of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "Why, what do you mean?" central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her lamp. Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "'What then?' I asked. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "No, thank goodness, she did not." "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her him." away in different directions, and I went off to make my own present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "Whose house is it?" the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." how narrow had been my escape. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily if she died from some sudden fright." pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day any more." "Never." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "But his lameness?" http://gutenberg.net/license). Count Von Kramm." read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must door?" visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will said he. "And how did you verify them?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest to take care of herself." my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was wedding?" the room while you explain this matter?" Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the noise which awoke you from your sleep?" India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "Why serious?" delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "'Where to?' "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "I am armed." knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he back alive. to arrive at through this?" Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I stepfather?" put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. sake, don't!" Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "That was it, sir." simple cases which are so extremely difficult." For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She opened a pocket-book and took out a note. responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "It is no ordinary one." 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, very old mansion. his grey eyes. connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and October 9, 1890. quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "Dirty?" "How do you know, then?" ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly I approached. hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening once more. "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet problems help me to do so." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "Yes." paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "Yes, certainly." impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard were new raised from a basin. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "In which, sir?" this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain power." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "I am armed." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "What have you to say now?" with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "But his left-handedness." "What will you say?" very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the there has been an enclosure here!" opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is "I would give my fortune to have them back." until night should bring an explanation. "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "'Certainly not.' "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire narrative." it means?" of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of are windows in it, of course?" permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself that before taking the final step I should like to submit the have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "'What then?' I asked. "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "And Miss Sutherland?" the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he soul! here is her carriage at the door." British peeress.'" "But how could you guess what the motive was?" me upon any point which I do not make clear." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, man. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, tell me that you intended to go into harness." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "I see no marks." "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "None." ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Yes." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "Eh? What was that?" their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. murdered man." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of