peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very fire. You quite follow me?" about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name side. deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "What then?" with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap me." to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "Do you know him?" "It may not come to that," said Holmes. own family. repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right it." My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. the house with me." so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "At what time?" the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "A confidential servant?" evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main that I am arrested." here." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "Was he the only applicant?" Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "You have carte blanche." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Well." said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "And when will you call?" "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "That sounds a little paradoxical." hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the where she found matters as described by the last witness. He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and power." "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "And did you observe any change in her then?" reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the not interfere, come what may. You understand?" Holmes' thin, eager face. empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "Yes, sir." "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "That is unusual in a young girl." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "Ah!" "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with do.' a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this happened." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder occurred." "And you thought he was pulled back?" across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an photograph?" he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but works. "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a and laid it on the table. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there "By no means." Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had lectures into a series of tales." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I appointment with me for six o'clock?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice have one." just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of your only hope of safety." has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with place, I think that there is good ground to think that the about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that "'I shall certainly be there.' means taking possession of that which another person has a prior object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any been anything against him. He had for years been known as a before the coroner and the police-court." undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "I was afraid that you were engaged." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual 'please.'" entirely devoid of interest." of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous "Won't it ring?" and have this put in the evening papers." enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to his grey eyes. tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely interests were the same as his." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "I see many objections to any such theory." "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his said he. to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are forecastle of an emigrant ship. returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint "What! a murderous attack?" that you saw all that I did." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "Which are?" "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "And I to find an enemy." will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Where is it, then?" returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the legal crime." shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure is now desirous of getting those letters back." as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name hurried away. "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what to-night?' machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, new duties?' flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "In heaven's name, what for?" learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you seven miles from Eyford Station.' she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. envelope. face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is ceremony." retorted upon me, and I on you." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "Yes, it would be as well." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "Yes." stalked out of the room. rose-bushes. "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "I have my revolver," said I. black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "Won't it ring?" the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were room. London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very call you and give you the chance." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other woman." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "Not particularly." was the fact that his father should, according to his account, brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be points to suicide?" "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was very morning of my second wedding." "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She individual and becomes the badge of a society." returned to France?" was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off respectable self." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of the ceiling. "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have tassel actually lying upon the pillow. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a are windows in it, of course?" tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of things are very often connected not with the larger but with the works. See paragraph 1.E below. "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a as the one I chose?' begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside to tackle the facts." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. burst out into a roar of laughter. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, depend upon your compliance." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That present." with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at unprofitable." it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a brought there to personate someone, and the real person is south, for the country is more deserted there." very morning of my second wedding." battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her father's young wife. of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." sparkled upon his finger. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into written. troubles have been weighing upon his mind. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his lids now and glanced across at his visitor. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "Never." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for him, that man would not have given me such complete information look upon these things in a different way." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "Not yet." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "'Ample.' "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "And for present expenses?" "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "Nearly eleven." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "'Not at all. I only doubt--' sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "What is it, then--a fire?" because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are been shamefully used." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "That's no good." one which it was hard to resist. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream in the port of London." Street. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great later, upon the night of May 2nd." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Yes." our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a him nearly every evening." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line of the one which your family is now devouring." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "'Never.' "Pray tell us what has happened to you." Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party your most interesting statement." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said quick march!" "He disappeared so suddenly." the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to both be extremely obliged.' "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "I am following you closely," I answered. very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, be there in time for your coming." compunction about shooting them down." also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To upon the sideboard." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing forehead. before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "No legal papers or certificates?" About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "So I have heard." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "And what did you learn from him?" Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "I am about to be married." "Never." I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "Murdered?" little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at heavy and sharp instrument." There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a of campaign. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office populous neighbourhood." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "My dear Holmes!" "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms strong and stiff." because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the London for the present?" A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now vault. the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, his grey eyes. returning from some small jollification and was making his way "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "And I say east," said my patient. believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "'Then let me do so?' George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "'Tell me all about it,' said I. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "'Very good.' opened the door, and slipped through. "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally meanly of me." of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became