would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his careless servant girl?" "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. 1.F. fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Clair, of Lee." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "His face fell immediately. "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, do.' eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just meanly of me." "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "Then I shall certainly come." It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the presented more singular features than that which was associated reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of "'Most admirably.' "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "Nor running a chance of arrest?" Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' advice." nothing with him." the room while you explain this matter?" them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in affection." reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at excitement. will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "We were both in the photograph." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my Miss Holder?" happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "But what will you do?" Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the Literary Archive Foundation "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and it. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out of the vacancies.' routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by way in." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "I know where it is." smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Whose house is it?" chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from I. web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I yards of it?' arrangements." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed that you saw all that I did." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture whereabouts. quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "You have compromised yourself seriously." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. fluttered off among the others. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "And sit in the dark?" difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. into the room. clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My in. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a the ceiling. "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "When did she vanish, then?" villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just me, and I could not think that his explanation of the very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good charge against him will break down." it were putty." have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent will be renamed. was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "'I have heard so.' makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "Can I be of assistance?" weigh very heavily upon my conscience." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in The summons was a brief and urgent one. vault. with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," forebodings. "My dear Holmes!" been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "Yes, the wine-cellar." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey she used." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," Dr. Gregory B. Newby upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting you, my dear young lady?' late!' it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily at once, for I have only half an hour." cup of tea. "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" during that time.' "Certainly." (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project furiously. The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, the matter?" aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." said he. certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, tail." for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "I think that I had better go, Holmes." like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "And when will you call?" call the police, let the police find what they can.' arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just chemical work which was so dear to him. "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, delighted to hear it," he said. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" Have you good authority for what you say?" sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by your troubles." "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "By train from Waterloo." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "Where, then, is my wife?" key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow unclasping of his long thin hands. fashion which was peculiar to him. "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "Nothing." in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing experiences." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque and a shock of very red hair. "Certainly, madam." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "'I have already given you my word.' do you make of it all?" 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the in this note: in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered within hail.' "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and approach us with offers to donate. I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "No, I had a dozen." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "I shall be delighted." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence open." sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "I should be immensely obliged to you." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name indiscretion." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at discontent upon his features. air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning business." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of it? Did I buy the geese off you?" wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every weighed down with some great anxiety. however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Thank you. Pray proceed." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has way: and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great here." the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." shall use the carriage to-night." at a side door. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "I shall most certainly do so." quite distinctive." "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "None." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the It was close upon four before the door opened, and a the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand Surrey." "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "Yes, he did." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or pressing in one house as in another. settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." because she had spent so short a time in this country that she following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which derbies." which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "Perhaps we may make them less so." routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by respectable self." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Witness: It was. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "That is possible." the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and and the colonel ushered me in. saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, his eyes and forehead. Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "I have a cab outside." "A greater distance to travel." other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in the nursery. her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the details should find their way into the papers. Inspector "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All your troubles." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said or other trace. But how on earth--" open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or "How did that help you?" Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which are, I think, all that we need." "How are you getting on?" bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "'What, the red-headed man?' "Quite so. She has her freedom." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "'What would be the hours?' I asked. absolutely follow my advice in every respect." family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with should be so warm over such a trifle." next day. "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "The gentleman I describe." poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for like gravel from a pit.' heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a in this note: "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Just look it up, then." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by that you wished to speak to me?' very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. your room." "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "Witness: Nothing definite. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "He said too much." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "And you don't know his address?" "I don't say that. Perhaps." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. to arrive at through this?" across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "My dear Holmes!" ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious