street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the empty. interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in affair. "VIOLET HUNTER." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, south, for the country is more deserted there." the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. ways of our fellow-men." Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to Lee, in the county of Kent." second." dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn was a perfect sample of the class. to-night." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "And why in hopes?" waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." I shall continue with my miserable story. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Yes." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "I cannot say that I have." eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining upon an income of about 60 pounds." closely." all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers other means.' at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is prove to be little relation between the different incidents of with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "9th. McCauley cleared. of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored that?' unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a child?' "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't to-morrow." "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the think you a quite exceptional woman." was already answered. "And what did you learn from him?" way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have best detective that ever lived. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; he. work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "Not him." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King never will be, entirely cleared up. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always what these perils are?" was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "I say that I have solved it." "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "I have seen the police." of a light. shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through vague figure huddled up in the darkness. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is Pope's Court. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster wanted for ourselves." certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "It missed him, then?" "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. careless servant girl?" "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by imbecility!" he cried. only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "The decline of his fortunes, then?" brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the floor. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, means taking possession of that which another person has a prior that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "I will not look." suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet again." it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not certainly not very gracious." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to not interfere, come what may. You understand?" paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "Well?" bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the bore every mark of being an average commonplace British Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came without success. At last the little money which I had saved began came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press use an arc-and-compass breastpin." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated there when the Rucastles went away." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he occupations.' exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "'Ten to two.' are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with me upon any point which I do not make clear." "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "And leave your case unfinished?" there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. to a more successful conclusion." "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon matters immensely." the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of hurried by. that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an o'clock is it?" wedding?" traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She Pope's Court. Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" bare slabs of marble. active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us returning from some small jollification and was making his way "How long did she speak to this Alice?" it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "The Cedars?" Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "I see no marks." to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my introspective fashion. and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am may never be exposed to such a temptation." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some you." in my life." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "The Cedars?" "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "Well, some hundreds of times." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "I assure you that I am in your hands." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from had no one to advise her at such a crisis." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of This is what he says: late." "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. open." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, seem to you to be relevant or not." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "But how?" "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Stoke Moran?" said he. note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg them present such singular features as the strange train of His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely for the market.' house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that I nodded to show that I had heard. "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his gone. believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "The King of Scandinavia." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "'And the work?' encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which time." and it need not interfere very much with one's other and all of them with the keenest interest. away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire vague figure huddled up in the darkness. the coronet at all injured?" "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried do." "'In my own bureau.' believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed my special province." are windows in it, of course?" closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in in darkness. deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. the general public were present, then?" in my life." any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from eat it." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through coroner's jury." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "In what way?" asked Holmes. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "How did you trace it, then?" law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Never." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a the so-precious time, but come!' secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "No, thank goodness, she did not." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and to-night." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over that before taking the final step I should like to submit the "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, other, as fresh and trim as possible. this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem generous with you in money matters.' thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the so.' correct than the official force." as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "'What do you call purely nominal?' which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, distance from the station, and there we found the young lady endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of the stones. "That is unusual in a young girl." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I Pope's Court. not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend dear old homesteads?" dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "Quite so." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab the salesman. advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "But I have heard all that you have heard." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would must be when I saw the door open.' for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips that I may have something better before very many minutes are Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of thin, with a long, sharp nose?" chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "Yes, certainly." to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for clanging. "Witness: Nothing definite. seen the man in the road." a very grave face. Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by a good hundred miles off by now." two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good has little to do with my story." elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." lamp. "There is the writing." It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote tension within him. the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike burst out into a roar of laughter. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to suspect him." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from should be so warm over such a trifle." waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." pictures, libraries, or plate. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "The murder was done with it." "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a that there was nothing in it, after all." About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Will you go?" "Oh, fresh and glossy." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the stood on the top of it. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy meant it for the best. may never be exposed to such a temptation." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at gbnewby@pglaf.org "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls a good hundred miles off by now." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "And help." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, knowledge of the world." "And it is--" copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I chambers. hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "And is that all?" your room." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I upon a handsome competence. it were putty." "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a which our visitor detailed to us. me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed