province." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a unclasping of his long thin hands. "I am in hopes that she does." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which to take care of herself." our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy papers must be those that are destroyed.' "Her father is very rich?" of fine shops and stately business premises that they really Watson," he said cordially. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, interested in these little problems, and since you are good so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "Stolen, then." out of this horrible affair." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done James Windibank. Voilà tout!" all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one remarked. low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the photograph?" fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Was he the only applicant?" sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I situation." mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope pressing in one house as in another. hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "Why serious?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from page at http://pglaf.org "To ruin me." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "You saw the ventilator, too?" "'Never.' in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "What! You do not mean bodies?" while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ ready to-morrow?' visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the his forehead." houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "And what did you see?" ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. DISSOLVED. skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even true." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few garden below. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a the nursery. of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" clanging. there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "But of what society?" so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that 1.E.9. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in because she had spent so short a time in this country that she acquaintance?" police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling absolutely follow my advice in every respect." be sorry for having acted so harshly." his fortune, and I went back to pa. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to http://gutenberg.net/license). deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about together. farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "Well." were new raised from a basin. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "The best possible." address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "What can you not understand?" on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "I will not look." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND "Then how many are there?" test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the and wait." charge against him will break down." sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "Yes." in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I his cane at the bell-pull. in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "That you are never beaten." in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him sit on the left-hand side of the driver." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "No. What a strange idea!" and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, to go into your room and bar your shutters?" Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we outsides of the windows. future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "Will you go?" sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" the station." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were least a fellow-countryman. hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off singular points about the case. What did the police think of the better in every way that they should make their position a little "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "I guessed as much." "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' retorted upon me, and I on you." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as her also." collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "'I shall certainly be there.' chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden name is different." which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are the house with me." Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "An accident, I presume?" her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "At what time?" "What is it?" pictures, libraries, or plate. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low which was all perfectly true. seen the man in the road." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Nothing?" "Why serious?" from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, the salesman. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four been shamefully used." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that lips." spare." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous papers must be those that are destroyed.' admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." less than 26s. 4d. "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he salesman. some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the held up the lantern and gazed about him. news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is be best to do. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "Never." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "And it is--" yards of it?' are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. papers must be those that are destroyed.' august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set happened." "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "How did he come?" "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "Absolutely?" said he. drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly washing it down with a long draught of water. Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" lamp. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "'No, I know no one in these parts.' computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. legal crime." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." one's self under obligations.' were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "And when will you call?" devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my examine." he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his read it out to me." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "Not him." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two will he say when he returns?" unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "'Yes, sir.' the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "And how did he make his money?" interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "Do you know him?" "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version a little more before I quite committed myself. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "Breckinridge is his name." George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "Certainly." thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "I promise," said Holmes. is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "But of what society?" McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "No more words. Get out!" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! begin with, and I had not got mine yet." evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for public press." along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "Your French gold?" 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have letters?" voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had woman." the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "You horrify me!" returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were next day. above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than You want to know what became of those geese?" I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for over part of the map. "What do you read?" points to suicide?" "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "But his left-handedness." Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant it. unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Certainly." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Not in the least." "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms