"Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was voice, changing her seat as requested. charged with?" There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "That's no good." "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your miles off. Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "We have tried and failed." collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the forbidden door. means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, congratulate you again." "Holmes, the busybody!" the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the Holmes' room. Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." nice household for a young lady." "None." without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. all-comprehensive glances. have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she instincts rose up against that laugh. your equipment. "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the tell me that you intended to go into harness." "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "But how did you gain them?" glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was himself to hunt down. prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though cup of tea. in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint "I don't believe it." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to she has been waylaid. There has been no result." array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "That sounds a little paradoxical." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "At the wedding breakfast." quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my will not take me long to tell. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. Mrs. Toller serenely. thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie have not had my rubber." it means?" in his power. feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, noble correspondent could be. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "Only as much as we can deduce." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard then?" money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the your own bird, so if you wish--" dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "No." broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I speckled band?" depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "You forget that I know nothing about it." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little sofa. This way, please!" the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "The decline of his fortunes, then?" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. your co-operation." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the read it out to me." "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "In heaven's name, what for?" grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He to you." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a was a lad." age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "He is still with you, I presume?" hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "'Why that?' I asks. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at ceremony." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate "Yes, all." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to round and wave him away like that.' "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the status with the IRS. treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could of it with the greatest attention. her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Very. But will he see it?" passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it about here speaks of his kindness to him." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather and shall probably return to London by the evening train." cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT there." and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "It missed him, then?" propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their than was visible to me." into the room. of this gang." "By no means." sooner or later she must fall a victim. DISSOLVED. wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to of." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by and the whole place is in a blaze." happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the and inquire as to the address." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "Perhaps I have." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "You have a clue?" you came in." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute back alive. who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made Heh?' "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass cause to be." was feeling which was the fattest.' had this final quarrel? and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the something of him before." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "I am still in the dark." "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. points to suicide?" in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman not interfere, come what may. You understand?" go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over children over to America with him, so that I found myself without Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did up this clue while it is still hot." frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as me." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. became a certainty. woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "'Which dealer's?' of the efforts of the United States government and of the better written, and locked the door of the office after me. through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission who was a member of your goose club." and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." cup of tea. "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "'Ten to two.' "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "You were travelling in the States?" mystery may be cleared along those lines." immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of call for it in person on Monday morning.' indeed happy." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "Then the page we have seen--" see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if then?" something of him before." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. be best to do. word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, go back?" his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no what I may call a really hard day's work." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid tell them apart.' connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "That is easily got." "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is good-night and bustled off upon her way. "Yes." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "Holmes, the busybody!" "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "Certainly, madam." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in is entirely a question of barometric pressure." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if companion. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and prisoner's face. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or of fine shops and stately business premises that they really "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for shaken than I had ever seen him. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a in darkness. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very invisible to me," I remarked. Holmes. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "Texas, I think." "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor heavy and sharp instrument." crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his detective. business." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with appeal." and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "How are you getting on?" imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. more terrible than the truth. discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from for the market.' this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with strength in the others." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the point in the dark hollow of his hand. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his ourselves in the office." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds and I shall be with you presently." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless be there in time for your coming." He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in persecution?" a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of walking." hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried would then never go into court at all." "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it to some other building. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, very peculiar words of the dying woman?" laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her was shining brightly. "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "What do you make of that, Watson?" hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "She will not sell." expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' not come at once?" more solid." figure." particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and lids now and glanced across at his visitor. page at http://pglaf.org have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the the house with me." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after them, and came down just as you departed. the station." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the You want to know what became of those geese?" my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "That sounds a little paradoxical." in his power. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque him!" the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. this man was intellectual?" civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We of note-paper. It read in this fashion: years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a developed." during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a said he, "my real name is James Ryder." Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His detained." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the chamber." him!" pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "'Not at all. I only doubt--' it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one