quickly through a disagreeable task. "And your mother is alive?" "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, charge against him will break down." follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "9th. McCauley cleared. stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it your most interesting statement." "And your mother is alive?" have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it heavily into it. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my any little problem which you may submit to me." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' what I may call a really hard day's work." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other remarked. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless http://www.gutenberg.net could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, read it out to me." giving me time to thank him. "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "And from a noble client?" For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "But your client--" gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever hour." "I have solved it." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "No more words. Get out!" starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do horse could go." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to article?" The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes newspaper selections." "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "And now?" I asked. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "'Where could I find him?' "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring not, dad?" she asked. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in Cross for the Continent." passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of have established a very serious case against the son of the your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "Precisely." one's self under obligations.' employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "Married! When?" tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "His face fell immediately. diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" I shall communicate with you." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" prepare for the new role I have to play." since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "How did you deduce the select?" greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had girl said." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." was lame." the coroner come to?" that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite I approached. "She told me to ask you." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "In heaven's name, what for?" felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a putting in the horse. that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "And for present expenses?" are windows in it, of course?" table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "But what is it you wish?" A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her least a fellow-countryman. "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and October 9, 1890. Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "But of what society?" 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "And why?" waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, compunction about shooting them down." bird I ate is country bred." late." should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at and no precautions can guard against." tension within him. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted on re-entering her father's house?" don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope window when the police appeared." door?" the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to which it had come upon my father." "At what time?" my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, presume?" winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried It may be so in this case, also." your equipment. and laid it on the table. "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life society." "Tired-looking or fresh?" there were one or two details which were new to me. But the again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods constraint." With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If appointment with me for six o'clock?" other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm breakfast." waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. such person." "No. His orders were to stay in the house." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until written, and locked the door of the office after me. "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "He is dead," cried several voices. "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two for and were ordered to this address. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, enter Dr. Roylott's room." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "But you were on a friendly footing?" thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose Sholtos." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, whether it answered to the description of any of their not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of desk. "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence and the whole place is in a blaze." to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "'Which dealer's?' peculiar to him. that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I her also." the stable lane now." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "And did you observe any change in her then?" "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "What!" he roared. dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite are windows in it, of course?" He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." least a most suspicious remark." and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, that before taking the final step I should like to submit the Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. to-night?' my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no whole matter to your consideration." Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of delirious. "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he something of him before." "'It is locked up,' I answered. people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her been." like that before?" nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "Yes." be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a rat could hardly pass through." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view must be when I saw the door open.' premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "Indeed! Whose, then?" course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "Yes." to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "His face fell immediately. overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs have been better. It is all right." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "And help." best detective that ever lived. preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making of fine shops and stately business premises that they really for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a London for the present?" "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "It is half-past ten now." waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he waste of energy." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of seem to you to be relevant or not." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the ways of our fellow-men." and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "No sign of it?" job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought nothing of it?" "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, them?" elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in Where does the thing come from?' 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" think you a quite exceptional woman." "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. results." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "That you are never beaten." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old down. springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, was a lad." could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." him!" cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you secret." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "No, finished." The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "Not him." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, obstinate." time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar appointment with me for six o'clock?" know all about it," he snarled. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "My private note-paper." the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So into the bag, and made for the door. "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "Nothing." will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, have not had my rubber." give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from quite distinctive." morning." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "Dr. Becher's." perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your do.' all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "How often?" wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry burst into a hearty fit of laughter. little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in habit of advancing money.' supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door shoulder, and pointed over the meadows.