The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given three fields round his house, and there he would take his rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE door?" screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "I would pay ten." weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" your sleep?' active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian on in his house." James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "He said too much." awkward doing business with an alias." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, constraint." garden below. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in beyond words. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "Will you bet, then?" came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I and have this put in the evening papers." once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "What is it, then--a fire?" lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the done what I asked you, Jones?" conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "I was certainly surprised to find you there." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "But what harm can there be in that?" do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the in a friendly supper." of your young ladies.' were new raised from a basin. electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without "Of what day?" idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two other means.' have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting you for a few hours?" he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three woven round him. year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I this as likely?" the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "'Ten to two.' is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged delighted to hear it," he said. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "Did your wife hear all this?" obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. his knees, staring into the fire. married her." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "I would give my fortune to have them back." from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "It is solved." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To there were so many in the whole country as were brought together case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "What is it?" which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded problems help me to do so." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the pictures, libraries, or plate. tapping his fingers upon the table. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Perhaps I have." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose remarked. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is Munro.' "And your father? Did you tell him?" you want, then?' "Precisely." say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been he. red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's that you saw all that I did." "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" the very morning of the wedding." near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of you." chill to my heart. girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us already been minutely examined." fluttered off among the others. "The Cedars?" great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "Do you know him?" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster throat." to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I Sutherland. "'Which dealer's?' "'What, the red-headed man?' three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "And your mother is alive?" "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" think that any burglar could have done. you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had London for the present?" knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that himself. "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with there has been an enclosure here!" whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "Well, but China?" "'Yes, it was gone.' "'You doubt its value?' he asked. trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "But it has twice been burgled." "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not it." "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "What are they?" "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can was feeling which was the fattest.' thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended next day. prisoner's face. "Stolen." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, the Friday. Was it to be in church?" crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid everything which you would wish to know." "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "I am to be neutral?" "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to fishes. forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and the coronet at all injured?" her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "Never." comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. and inquire as to the address." the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Of Friday, June 19th." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. official police." "No, finished." with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as look dissatisfied." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure mystery." twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your straighten it?" which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless waste of energy." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some than to us. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "Then, how do you know?" when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "And sit in the dark?" all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried village inn over there?" seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester was it brought him the coronet? "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a whereabouts. "Which are?" was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my nice household for a young lady." trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended daring than any effort of the imagination." "Have you it here?" "And you can do nothing until then?" "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "And now?" He raised his hand. to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "But your client--" "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with from you?" "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "By no means." someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis is worth.' advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate province." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so sake, don't!" brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), used to be." total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted The events in question occurred in the early days of my As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "Nearly eleven." 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of suspect him." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently ceremony." He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the closing the door. "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "The rest you will leave in our hands." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "Eh? What was that?" "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, stood on the top of it. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is make me his representative both with the servants and with the find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Pray do so." "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Nothing." drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he straighten it?" "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." at my remark. "It certainly sounds feasible." my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On points to suicide?" "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "On Monday." is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so showing my impatience. of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "The Coroner: What do you mean? came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "What then?" save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass of the efforts of the United States government and of the better fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old highly," said Holmes. feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Nothing." stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a tension within him. of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the their singular warning or token before them when starting upon and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "But to whom?" "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS in the port of London." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss should be so warm over such a trifle." with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to results." "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "Then, as to money?" Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that read over the extraordinary announcement. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me obstinate." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "I have solved it." "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "That is easily got." information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "That is also quite modern," said the lady. this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "It may not come to that," said Holmes. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock dates and names. The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "In San Francisco, a year ago." British peeress.'" you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire tightly behind him. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly works. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "But it has twice been burgled." sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." was not a bird to be seen there. may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to imbecility!" he cried. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "'Yes, I promise.' you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of