step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I all-comprehensive glances. pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his introspective fashion. "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "Was she in good spirits?" "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was started for the Temple to see my husband. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great that he has suffered." erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, man. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had depend upon your compliance." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project are, and they are waiting for us." however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' room. stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is Dr. Gregory B. Newby to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. morning." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "Ha! you find it so?" would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years depend upon your compliance." young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents "'What do you call purely nominal?' "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "Of what day?" "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I quite distinctive." - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "Entirely." IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' his huge brown hands. "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "I am following you closely," I answered. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age served to weaken the effect. entirely lost his self-respect." "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side girl said." "Texas, I think." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS touch that coronet?' and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low way in." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to Holmes." "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he said I. paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "And why?" "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "Where, then?" Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you points to suicide?" have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a front of me. Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in of Fenchurch Street." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me forebodings. the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO so.' of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "9th. McCauley cleared. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the that?' enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes annoyance, but no jest. "Was he the only applicant?" the bed, and you in that chair." immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to bare slabs of marble. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are secret." She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my the coronet at all injured?" must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was rooms." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" bare slabs of marble. which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay the loss of it. plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is to tackle the facts." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat even so self-evident a thing as that." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have promised to bring home. firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair interested in these little problems, and since you are good own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "'Is purely nominal.' "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, swore that no one else had been in the front room during the rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "You know me, then?" "In which, sir?" of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "Not social, then?" or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "Certainly." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote up this clue while it is still hot." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "She told me to ask you." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to frequently gained my first real insight into the character of not within a twentieth part of the market price." anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he my secret was safe in his possession. His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between hopeless attempt at recovering them." "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only something of him before." "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said one's self under obligations.' over with notes and figures. The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't one or two very singular points about this room. For example, laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We and effective." do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "What, then, did Peterson do?" armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "That is easily got." "'It is locked up,' I answered. the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "And now?" He raised his hand. off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "But how did you gain them?" the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on DISSOLVED. and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "What shall I do?" go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "'I have heard so.' All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement most important business. It is probable that he will be away all music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of woven round him. me. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving might help us?" of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project something of him before." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we this Miss Turner." prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "In what way?" asked Holmes. Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in woman." was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my before, for it was considerably after midnight. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "Very well, sir. And this stone?" remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder horse could go." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my said he. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the bill, which interests me deeply." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" ordinary clothes on?" of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the and looked back. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in hurried by. "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he the room while you explain this matter?" the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence Farm upon the left." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "You did not overhear what they said?" down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "But you have hopes?" on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could a good hundred miles off by now." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were lectures into a series of tales." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he your own bird, so if you wish--" "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking because she had spent so short a time in this country that she certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Yes." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting appeared upon the scene." with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to kindly on the shoulder. have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "Well?" comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor events, Mr. Windibank!" in his hands." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that direction." my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased occurred." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened in his power. locked. cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room man. I know him from the photograph." Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the girl said." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "Yesterday." the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "My last client of the sort was a king." what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. examine." sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "So I am. Very much so." you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "No." the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "He disappeared so suddenly." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at legal crime." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some cigars in the box." XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. way in." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "I think that I had better go, Holmes." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them deduce something from that?" better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Whose house is it?" circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when weighed down with some great anxiety. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, discontent upon his features. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Who was the criminal, then?" "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. round and wave him away like that.' enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing