steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, better grown goose." scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to Serpentine Avenue. he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "What can it mean?" I gasped. "Certainly." the stable lane now." were wasted." deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is matter over." "Yes, only one." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "The vanishing of the lady." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "Very well, sir. And this stone?" public press." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "What?" it means?" vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a stammered. "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. lectures into a series of tales." I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "'Ample.' "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases occurred." he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his standing smiling on the door-step. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me troubles have been weighing upon his mind. crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "Come in!" said he. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "Yes." followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "You don't mind breaking the law?" Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered extraordinary contortions. with you?" secret." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "'And the work?' I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "'Why that?' I asks. events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his of." us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned fattened it expressly for you.' those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little is acting for the best. it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to The events in question occurred in the early days of my which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "'Yes, sir.' he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, anything to a woman, for she would have her way." sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a III. another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "And help." noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the as noiselessly as she had come. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall been anything against him. He had for years been known as a annoyance, but no jest. nonsense.' "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter colonel looking down at me. with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "What?" grasp, he hurried from the room. him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to I think that I could be of assistance to you." the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There murdered man." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed ill-usage at the hands of fortune. returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or Literary Archive Foundation "And did you observe any change in her then?" hour." in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and once more. young Openshaw's." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "'I am sure that I do not know.' Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote better grown goose." the morning and make my own way in the world.' the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted the nursery. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "But who is he?" dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly and that he would see to anything that turned up. wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "Yes." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or young Openshaw's." that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "A greater distance to travel." gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "Have you it here?" chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be looking up at the numbers of the houses." over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a character. "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting roused himself from his reverie. time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "You are all wrong." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have as the one I chose?' "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "'Never.' among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "At the wedding breakfast." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to where we are going." steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "I have solved it." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I maid will bring up your coffee." but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "But who is he?" Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to certainly do as you advise." suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "Was he the only applicant?" Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "What?" is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not yet." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "Yes." was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she this Miss Turner." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so photograph a cabinet?" It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to over with notes and figures. hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "You were travelling in the States?" "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." wife's character?" On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having deduce something from that?" thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Yes, it was twisted." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided careless servant girl?" "Then you may be so with me." Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe his fortune, and I went back to pa. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish him. bachelor.' being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "What then?" "He is dead," cried several voices. "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able awkward doing business with an alias." I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "We must have a cab." "Well?" again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich outbreak?" got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. that he has suffered." smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, case-book, which he consulted. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several the roots. the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" chair. "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "Yes." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings and inquire as to the address." There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off You can understand that this register and diary may implicate Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger in one or two places in England?' commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the "'Ample.' "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it clang of the bell. useful material for showing traces. The double line a little walking." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings helping a boy to put up the shutters. until night should bring an explanation. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point would apply.' while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. 1.F. however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, During two years I have had three consultations and one small showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "In San Francisco, a year ago." knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "That is not always so easy." "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I fishes. weapon." to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself redistribution. previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would you." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were noting anything else of interest. "And sit in the dark?" adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were sentimental considerations in the background which would induce stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here in darkness. across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "'In my own bureau.' "What have you to say now?" exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the it means?" we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so the night.' "Absolutely?" continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? Henry Baker is a member." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "Here?" "You are all wrong." ago." analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast "Dark enough and sinister enough." "Then I do not see the point." "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and with the outside air!" out of this horrible affair." me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A Dr. Gregory B. Newby "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "Yes, but only for you and me." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There roused himself from his reverie. tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "This photograph!" "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet asked. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to to go into your room and bar your shutters?" result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. skylight. where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to do you make of it all?" stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Yes." horse could go." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "No. His orders were to stay in the house." George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the footfalls from the street. trifles." Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "You horrify me!" my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my developed." Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "I am in hopes that she does." "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some Project Gutenberg-tm works. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "Not I." told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." never came back." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform lectures into a series of tales." in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of orange pips. bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "I was sure that I might rely on you." are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "And it is--" side. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in my room." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "Did your wife hear all this?" our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with your most interesting statement." lamp in his hand. bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but nonsense.' wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. one's self under obligations.' the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations remarked. uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. me upon any point which I do not make clear." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her points in connection with it which never have been, and probably than to us. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "No." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even suspect him." handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a