upon an income of about 60 pounds." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "But you would not advise me to refuse?" man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time way in." I shall continue with my miserable story. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." if she died from some sudden fright." may never be exposed to such a temptation." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of which I could not give. He asked for Alice. clanging. that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." charged with?" "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "That also I could fathom." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "10th. John Swain cleared. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "Did he not advertise?" without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance Where does the thing come from?' "What, then, did Peterson do?" Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "Absolutely?" revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment will he say when he returns?" find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp there were so many in the whole country as were brought together Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to persecution?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be For additional contact information: "Nothing." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "On the contrary, this is the right side." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. to that open window." She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, unprofitable." appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we criminal. We have already had experience of such." tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place opened a pocket-book and took out a note. well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear she slowly sank and died without having recovered her doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in intrusion of other matters." fled together." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less gone. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in "Awake, Watson?" he asked. and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "None. Neville wrote those words." the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off present strange and interesting features that it is no easy Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "That's no good." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the own family. in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my stalked out of the room. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "How many? I don't know." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid there was no need for father to know." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "You will not go there first?" importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's way in everything. "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and examine." there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than looking up at the numbers of the houses." you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "Yes, the wine-cellar." opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." mysterious business." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes It may be so in this case, also." ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me morning." several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four noise which awoke you from your sleep?" course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge the coronet in his hand?" "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs your room." will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very gbnewby@pglaf.org age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The persecution?" "On your arm?" skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor off." company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "Can I be of assistance?" relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "I am armed." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable your co-operation." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Nothing?" gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and had this final quarrel? left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "You have compromised yourself seriously." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "Very much so." belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses happened." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a past. dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an had formerly been in part my own. "Won't it ring?" blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "It's nothing of the kind." a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "I warn you that they are very incomplete." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man highroad, where all traces were lost. purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy late." a little more before I quite committed myself. in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "The King of Scandinavia." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving and the whole place is in a blaze." desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so strange features which were associated with the two crimes which Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "Never." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed over his head with a sweet womanly caress. has little to do with my story." "You don't mind breaking the law?" accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, matter." tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "Yes." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is ran thus: "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "In heaven's name, what for?" suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "But the mystery?" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence and inquire as to the address." you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "I was mad--insane." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "Eh? What was that?" But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further he bowed and left the room without another word. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "Yes." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be noise which awoke you from your sleep?" half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "My dear Holmes!" "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that hardly wander." association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your that, and I came down." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "You horrify me." and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to Miss Holder?" "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that a very grave face. saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "You have but to name it." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "I beg pardon." he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "You think so, too?" "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even followed. Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" directors have had misgivings upon the subject." awkward doing business with an alias." Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "Yes." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "Nothing?" these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled is entirely a question of barometric pressure." silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but British peeress.'" of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud "Oh, fresh and glossy." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "You have the photograph?" sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission remarked. and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "She walked into the breakfast-room." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right house for five minutes.' "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a guilty parties." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our attention." "Come in!" said Holmes. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "'Which dealer's?' routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold shaken than I had ever seen him. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a existence." years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "Did he not advertise?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the go back?" sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "You have carte blanche." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of children over to America with him, so that I found myself without nothing with him." wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "Yes." Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "The King of Scandinavia." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for distinguish the words: that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "Yes." few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted do you make of it all?" "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is carriage. It was a chestnut." few hundred pounds.' 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard presume?" some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the to surprise her." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "It is true that I have been generally successful." learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, You want to know what became of those geese?" blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as the station." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "It's nothing of the kind." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in delirious. Lee, in the county of Kent." "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Then I am your man." that there was nothing in it, after all." would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I