"Then how many are there?" her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a which are rolled in Rotterdam." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the Munro.' "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell points in connection with it which never have been, and probably Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. together. to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can guilty one." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge kindly on the shoulder. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold populous neighbourhood." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. highroad, where all traces were lost. cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been not within a twentieth part of the market price." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just developed." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made make me his representative both with the servants and with the colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would one which it was hard to resist. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "And from a noble client?" door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington system of imprisonment?" intrusion of other matters." received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." at my own good fortune. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. touch that coronet?' in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and tension within him. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "I should be immensely obliged to you." will be renamed. "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a stepfather?" Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of beg that you will break it off." society." very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "I say that I have solved it." "'Most admirably.' could not have written that. It is the German who is so the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our had formerly been in part my own. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From you, my dear young lady?' Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. his huge brown hands. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his to you." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the them present such singular features as the strange train of "What steps will you take?" I asked. was already answered. among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were have I gained?" did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net in the dead of the night?' words came to my lips. "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." and inquire as to the address." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Entirely." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had populous neighbourhood." look upon these things in a different way." lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I asked. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that annoyance, but no jest. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "You have it, sir, just as it happened." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it during the last few years, and there are many noble families to admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the it means?" her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few him to be an active member of the medical profession." enter into my head. that, and I came down." are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon the matter." these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "It came here." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow tapping his fingers upon the table. "And why?" parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "So I have heard." over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of already been minutely examined." photograph?" agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I my room." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring of Mr. Rucastle's." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything him, that man would not have given me such complete information the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "'I have heard so.' in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "What then?" weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, the bed, and you in that chair." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "They are typewritten," I remarked. arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "'What would be the hours?' I asked. the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "And your mother is alive?" They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary character. quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "And you thought he was pulled back?" long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. are windows in it, of course?" though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "No bad?" repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the Holmes." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "I fear not." at a side door. hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "Very much so." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling shall not find me ungrateful." "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "I shall be delighted." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in highroad, where all traces were lost. on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would dear old homesteads?" a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "But of what society?" upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "She will not sell." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of despair." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I The King stared at him in amazement. fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one that, and I came down." "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." see me here to avoid scandal." is a common subject for conversation. As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round upon the sideboard." narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a works. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest silent! Oh, he will be silent!' Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I side. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "Oh, the cause is excellent!" very peculiar words of the dying woman?" then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at have had none more fantastic than this." she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "I cannot imagine." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the bell. Holmes whistled. the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up confronted him. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that of it with the greatest attention. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery you do it in twenty minutes!' which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may whether it answered to the description of any of their Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "Yes." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his was keenly on my guard against him. States. One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was eavesdroppers?' better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, breakfast." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." wall." "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" Leadenhall Street--and--" seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He sooner or later she must fall a victim. Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in colonel looking down at me. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days green of the new foliage. bill, which interests me deeply." "'Yes, I promise.' Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "But how?" the matter?" practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had me what he had done with the three missing stones. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for there." boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "Precisely so. But how--" the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "One of his hands." preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "Then he might have called to you?" shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "I would give my fortune to have them back." all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. the nursery. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you later, upon the night of May 2nd." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "Yes, only one." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "A thing like a cleaver," said he. learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "May I see it?" inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew of receipt of the work. doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know chair. yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, strength of mind to control. hard-headed British jury." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than come either from the window or the door. My attention was round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, about here speaks of his kindness to him." "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." into the room. after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "And you don't know his address?" My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, should be so warm over such a trifle." years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her which we had just quitted. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "I have seen the police." first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked jewels which you have stolen?' of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would room. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "Where did he live, then?" perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?"