leaning back in his chair. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last not interfere, come what may. You understand?" nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the empty. rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far she to prove their authenticity?" building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Married! When?" is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out chill to my heart. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "I will try. What is it?" "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small there in twenty minutes." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to floor. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 tell him that I know him to be innocent." "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his to change my dress. the south-west, I see." several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. instincts rose up against that laugh. least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen to change my dress. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "It is a murder, then?" "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." have established a very serious case against the son of the extraordinary contortions. many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Will you bet, then?" "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would made him keep the appointment." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I he died? "You have the photograph?" You want to know what became of those geese?" tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their window when the police appeared." sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked there is a decided draught." beg that you will break it off." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "'There is a drive, then?' every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "You have compromised yourself seriously." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some of." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "The King of Scandinavia." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose of a light. a few minutes he said that it would be all right. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The he. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "How did you deduce the select?" had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with dramatic, in fact." "Yes, they were peculiar boots." fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "It is possible." trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "I was sure that I might rely on you." young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official passage and a tap at the door. assist you in forming an opinion." avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, British peeress.'" have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that Sutherland. Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "By train from Waterloo." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing three of the beryls in it, was missing. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "Did he not advertise?" drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the will he say when he returns?" "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "No, my brougham is waiting." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is galvanised. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the of it with the greatest attention. minor matters until to-morrow." "I don't say that. Perhaps." is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "But you were on a friendly footing?" returning from some small jollification and was making his way and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official chambers. he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "That is possible." in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "'Certainly,' I answered. he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to already been minutely examined." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "But the mystery?" "You know me, then?" sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely what do you think they found in the pockets?" "You will not go there first?" to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel has little to do with my story." "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before absorbing." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Come in!" said he. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "We must have a cab." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Yes, they were peculiar boots." savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, persecution?" I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for triumphant cloud from his cigarette. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal tell him that I know him to be innocent." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there within hail.' wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers me. doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary me. hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have than to us. giving me time to thank him. had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went where she found matters as described by the last witness. it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle place, I think that there is good ground to think that the return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "Not social, then?" learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was of your young ladies.' pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never crackling voice. I approached. come either from the window or the door. My attention was "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but "And how did you verify them?" merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "It is very kind of you." ceremony." "Bought." cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an Holmes. could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some affection." violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her new duties?' with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel have been better. It is all right." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed since then to throw any light upon what became of him." charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." guilty parties." correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a the matter." "But you have hopes?" another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours already been minutely examined." look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid the tragedy. he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, you." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the the loss of it. his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress redistribution. "Yes." Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "None." lost nothing by them." three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, copied or distributed: the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe becomes even more simple." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "Oh, fresh and glossy." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is instincts rose up against that laugh. satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, them?" her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "It came here." "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will might help us?" suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he paper in the air. "Who was the criminal, then?" "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. seen the man in the road." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent something of him before." my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to interested in these little problems, and since you are good had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that did not hear it also.' "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "From his hat?" Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of anything to a woman, for she would have her way." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "In what way?" asked Holmes. "Yes." stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their as yours." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to looking up at the numbers of the houses." sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so III. suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, all that?" it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "'And what are they worth?' I asked. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and learned something! Where are the gems?" all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "Thank you. Pray proceed." is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "I shall most certainly do so." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "Whose house is it?" information in his hands the value of which he did not himself a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which Young McCarthy must be got off, however." didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried husband's writing, madam." stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." suspect him." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "Of what?" Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled if she died from some sudden fright." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the without success. At last the little money which I had saved began wanted for ourselves." as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "What?" the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless Dr. Gregory B. Newby "'A dozen yards or so.' better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for furiously. before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "Get out!" said he. With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself I nodded to show that I had heard. weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "Yes." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two results." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to chance at all." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "Where did he live, then?" had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "You saw the ventilator, too?" light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "And is that all?" a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. the one as in the other." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited what do you think they found in the pockets?" Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the anything to do with the matter?" appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, the coroner come to?"