"Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday or in danger--" know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time meant." "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "'Then let me do so?' A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I already referred to. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "It missed him, then?" "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while six. Come in!" not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "It must be recovered." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. to-morrow." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "And how did you find out?" cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "'Never.' "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom annoyance, but no jest. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a details should find their way into the papers. Inspector but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and in a friendly supper." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "Well, it is a possible supposition." present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe my room." with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but information in his hands the value of which he did not himself at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "Where did he live, then?" Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were to tell." people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the face and glided from the room. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend chill to my heart. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that the house with me." See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a papers." endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which confronted him. cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, your co-operation." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for which we had just quitted. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "I don't believe it." "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the skylight. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for which our visitor detailed to us. get the tickets." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept figure." my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a Foundation "Upon what point?" "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "In San Francisco, a year ago." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "I don't say that. Perhaps." Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set deduce something from that?" Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "We must have a cab." "'Yes, I promise.' owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "And leave your case unfinished?" still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of placed his cuttings. "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with "She will not sell." burst out into a roar of laughter. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "So I heard. You have him here?" Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, system of imprisonment?" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it the running down." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are my former friend and companion. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "In which, sir?" it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was purpose of examination. "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing would apply.' "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I felt?" simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! happened." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It time." we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have bell. Holmes whistled. foresight and the moral retrogression?" that the gas is not laid on in his house?" way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the questioning and rather startled gaze. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "What! Had he lost his wife?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "In what way?" asked Holmes. money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long photograph?" broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "The knees of his trousers." It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, likely to be some crony of the landlady's." mysterious end." opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask tell him that I know him to be innocent." which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is brain must have something in it." him to be an active member of the medical profession." But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I not fit the lock." strange features which were associated with the two crimes which was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting to-night?" I asked. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he touch that coronet?' "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "Seven!" I answered. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "VIOLET HUNTER." "Yes." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. ready to-morrow?' the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew would apply.' tightly behind him. enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and sufficient punishment." the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good License. You must require such a user to return or to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "You forget that I know nothing about it." is a common subject for conversation. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "Of what day?" been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an extraordinary contortions. yet." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. handed it to him. matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "No." Leadenhall Street--and--" the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "Ha! you find it so?" borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "But how?" metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others go--none." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "Dark enough and sinister enough." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "'In my own bureau.' "But we can't all be." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the events, Mr. Windibank!" another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Yes." conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue to change my dress. more terrible than the truth. "I know where it is." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit quickly through a disagreeable task. "Your sister is dead, then?" interests were the same as his." stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "I will get her to show me." eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just maiden herself was most instructive." one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "Nothing?" much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "But your client--" upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask intrusion of other matters." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their his forehead." "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of little trying to do so much typewriting?" "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you with frightened eyes at his accuser. my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "What then?" buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her recall any case within my experience which looked at the first other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in behind me. several quiet little villages up there." too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which there!' It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "'Certainly not.' "And what did you see?" "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "Certainly." digesting their breakfasts at home." what I may call a really hard day's work." particular state visit http://pglaf.org figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very in the dead of the night?' brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. introspective fashion. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon back alive. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said new duties?' I held the little printed slip to the light. position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all know that the truth is known." a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall of them has the shutters up.' "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "Well, but China?" dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies matter." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of feature." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "Bought." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future affection." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his The summons was a brief and urgent one. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like gigantic client. tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. my former friend and companion. "'Is 4 pounds a week.' hour?' especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of brought there to personate someone, and the real person is in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce "What then?" The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "Absolutely?" seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that again on its way. impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was distinguish the words: over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' flock.' for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and interested in these little problems, and since you are good "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the straighten it?" "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself