"Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker good-night and bustled off upon her way. when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "I am sure." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was see a sister of mine apply for." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "Imitated." he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "We have tried and failed." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and right! Sit down and let us talk it over." trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no get the tickets." village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the second window is the one that I jumped from." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "Then I do not see the point." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The situation." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I answered that I had not. schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Ten will be early enough." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I more solid." "Well, but China?" Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "He might." deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in all-comprehensive glances. "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others disappearance of the bride.'" called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in she slowly sank and died without having recovered her Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET maid will bring up your coffee." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday writer." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. depend upon your compliance." among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows as noiselessly as she had come. shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. You can understand that this register and diary may implicate of the vacancies.' said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to indiscretion." How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done the address that was given us in the advertisement. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "Well, it is a possible supposition." "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first residence of the great financier. matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. the south-west, I see." "Yes, he did." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "10th. John Swain cleared. "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "None." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had a room. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in go from here to the Strand." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "He disappeared so suddenly." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a wedding?" assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and upon an income of about 60 pounds." seem to you to be relevant or not." game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived experiences." when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "You are certainly joking, Holmes." strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "What, then, did Peterson do?" seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or to affect your life." Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "She showed me, as I told you she would." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a deduce something from that?" placed his cuttings. believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the lips." What do you deduce from it?" memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "My own seal." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the to miss it." kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle was a lad." where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was young Openshaw's." and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was in one or two places in England?' should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "The murder was done with it." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, would apply.' Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up it. closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his as he remarks, very much against the son." narrative." compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp IS All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It wedding?" as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and "The Cedars?" the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the nothing with him." came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of present." "If I can be of use." and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about the bottom.' said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "Then I am your man." But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was fire. You quite follow me?" "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "There is the writing." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had to-morrow." the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "We must sit without light. He would see it through the there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his you give your casting vote to?" Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now must compliment you." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. this man was intellectual?" round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "An enemy?" "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey village inn over there?" "No, but the enclosure is." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and gigantic client. promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at to a light-house. third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "Yes?" "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a was the fact that his father should, according to his account, say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "I cannot tell." "I assure you that I am in your hands." "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "Then I can wait in the next room." and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "That also I could fathom." less than 26s. 4d. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble beg that you will break it off." in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, call it cruel." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his carpenter." mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then third from London." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps http://www.gutenberg.net the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "Then how many are there?" "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "You don't mind breaking the law?" that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland me what he had done with the three missing stones. carriage. It was a chestnut." details." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. and the colonel ushered me in. enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and said he at last. her also." "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been that he has suffered." "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid in a friendly supper." said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his from you?" and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Ha! you find it so?" was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest hardly wander." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform to have that photograph." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the an introduction to him?" instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "So I have heard." XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "No." good for you to do.' look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against be. "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon my former friend and companion. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "It is solved." his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is some water from a caraffe. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "But I am all in the dark." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. of fine shops and stately business premises that they really devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she envelope. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to three fields round his house, and there he would take his With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to use an arc-and-compass breastpin." existence." The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a fish-monger and a tide-waiter." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. you understand?" beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of new duties?' address. correct than the official force." "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and yards of it?' pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "To an English lawyer named Norton." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your burst out into a roar of laughter. gigantic client. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Pray do so." "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "'I am sure that I do not know.' who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Will you bet, then?" whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can here and I will read it to you: station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a better in every way that they should make their position a little "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "But I have heard all that you have heard." "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. that?' Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "That also I could fathom." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor Holmes." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, 1.F. ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident Holmes' room. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when foot. crackling voice. your troubles." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in