"Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a any more." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the my special province." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one name is different." "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. companion quietly. in a friendly supper." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid interest. They are important, you understand, without being "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a made him keep the appointment." "If so, much may have happened between." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only round with crates and massive boxes. once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "But you were on a friendly footing?" fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "'How far from the body?' skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked excitement. your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "VIOLET HUNTER." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Where, then?" it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "Nothing?" Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came may never be exposed to such a temptation." morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up shoulder; "he's all right." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than to-night." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "How did that help you?" "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing call it cruel." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a have not had my rubber." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards politicians who had been sent down from the North. for and were ordered to this address. Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "But she could not love him." Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy late!' against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it have an American origin." confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in recover the gem." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "Absolutely none." you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not persecution?" without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "What do you mean?" Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the that there was nothing in it, after all." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "Where is it, then?" "And how?" it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I fear." to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Yes." be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some "No bad?" writer." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to my former friend and companion. "Witness: Nothing definite. uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for thought that she would have been so carried away." outsides of the windows. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated results." "Entirely." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "It was." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An was keenly on my guard against him. there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "She told me to ask you." "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I to-night." because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the think that any burglar could have done. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "I shall be delighted." "Very. But will he see it?" "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country fasten all the windows?" shoulder. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "He disappeared so suddenly." 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something was used.' him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, but preventing her from injuring another. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "You forget that I know nothing about it." beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. the window, rose as we entered. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "And from a noble client?" "How did he come?" standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "What?" "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after is entirely a question of barometric pressure." observed. "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, paper in the air. for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I house for five minutes.' within hail.' Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." McCarthy's innocence. uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you of a light. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "Why did you beat the pavement?" beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover do." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel in a friendly supper." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it which it had come upon my father." Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "I would pay ten." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white rat could hardly pass through." turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry quite distinctive." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "It is no ordinary one." him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right foresight and the moral retrogression?" I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "Did you become engaged then?" recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "I know where it is." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended window when the police appeared." bled considerably." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice ventilator." my special province." as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" His smile broadened. I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "I was afraid that you were engaged." pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "I have my revolver," said I. position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the child." "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as second." "Stolen, then." "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "But how will you look?" places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it meant." part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a true." then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so be sorry for having acted so harshly." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and Young McCarthy must be got off, however." presented more singular features than that which was associated "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client acquaintance?" the coronet in his hand?" grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "Dr. Becher's." visitors." heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do it." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some this poor creature." already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid forbidden door. like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "At what time?" mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side jewels which you have stolen?' "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." standing smiling on the door-step. sparkled upon his finger. "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "No." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." asked. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the begun to whiten, even as mine has." must compliment you." "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. hard-headed British jury." among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "That is it on the dressing-table." gbnewby@pglaf.org called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right footfalls from the street. here." have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, the Friday. Was it to be in church?" gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the is entirely a question of barometric pressure." she to prove their authenticity?" "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "And sit in the dark?" never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "You were travelling in the States?" should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Oh, yes, easily." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the McCarthy." beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the acquaintance?" Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid which should have the effect of calling the attention of the grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "One of his hands." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until again before evening." "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had I shall communicate with you." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he strength in the others." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but this truth that in these little records of our cases which you rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." garden below. make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to window when the police appeared." is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your happened." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "'Yes, sir.' Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" quite distinctive." away to you." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that and have this put in the evening papers." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord,