very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the hurried away. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' call for protection in the marriage market, for the present that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she companion. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "And what did you see?" "What then?" A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "I will get her to show me." woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of envelope. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly This is what he says: Holmes." "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are of." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up photograph a cabinet?" something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated three fields round his house, and there he would take his "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." horse could go." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "Yes?" reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his you in yours." out." lips." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such during that time.' such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very wanted for ourselves." something of him before." "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the felt the room to be a little close.' "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "Why, what do you mean?" contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the third from London." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "I say that I have solved it." extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over other lovers by making love himself." that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag attention." learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat http://www.gutenberg.net down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time very peculiar words of the dying woman?" thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "In which, sir?" looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared about here speaks of his kindness to him." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the interests were the same as his." union?" permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. papers diligently of late, have you not?" who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable the date of his supposed suicide." "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." entirely lost his self-respect." were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." with you alone." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker over with notes and figures. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "Did you observe the colour?" opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and I am not easy in my mind about them." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "Because he was handy and would come cheap." She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "How can you tell that?" "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a the best of training." into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new in his power. "Quite so." http://gutenberg.net/license). The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his status with the IRS. save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like fattened it expressly for you.' herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "'Ample.' "'What then?' I asked. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even happened." doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the to go into your room and bar your shutters?" something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking visitors." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not straightened it out again. the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." extraordinary contortions. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of Again Holmes raved in the air. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one questioning and rather startled gaze. beyond words. ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in corner of the building. consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you manager. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "And what did you see?" outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each gone before you can get him to hospital." to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was window when the police appeared." your room." been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading it with his own hands." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of village inn over there?" objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, results." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "'Yes, it was gone.' and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout power." many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." success. "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "I will get her to show me." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "Not social, then?" paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm answer." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at get her out of the way." formed some opinion?" between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "I was certainly surprised to find you there." Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to prove to be little relation between the different incidents of some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "No, I am descending." the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow bell. Holmes whistled. were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of Farm upon the left." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's yourselves in at night?" she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "My private note-paper." misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety him, that man would not have given me such complete information yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation time." ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "No?" and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "Not I." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I fear." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at arms and began to sob in a high treble key. violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to straightened it out again. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and too. for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." upon the white wrist. initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are upon the sideboard." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "One of his hands." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "I cannot think." "But his lameness?" on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "If so, much may have happened between." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer to miss it." since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" lamp. "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." address. "Will you go?" these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight character. "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other the window, rose as we entered. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "But we can't all be." "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "Certainly, madam." asked. is a common subject for conversation. "Pray do so." scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a me." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "But the mystery?" "'It is locked up,' I answered. pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to it. The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an purpose of examination. the bottom.' Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, anything to do with the matter?" dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel conduct the inquiry." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the miles off. his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible garden below. door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "Imitated." "'What would be the hours?' I asked. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. gbnewby@pglaf.org standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and pictures, libraries, or plate. heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished nice household for a young lady." For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. certainly do as you advise." out." could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "Perfectly so." are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself the so-precious time, but come!' "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from married her." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., about here speaks of his kindness to him." mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it IS reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "No. What a strange idea!" fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "Where, then?" headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "Did he not advertise?" "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and obstinate." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "To an English lawyer named Norton." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and DISSOLVED. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "Where did he live, then?" late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are the very morning of the wedding." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand second window is the one that I jumped from." "Ample." Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had enter Dr. Roylott's room." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So I held the little printed slip to the light. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, here." garden below. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he photograph a cabinet?" boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Yes." them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." of the way of danger. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a