of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "No, I had a dozen." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of obstinate." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. yourselves in at night?" to go into your room and bar your shutters?" Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "'And the work?' "I should be immensely obliged to you." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when me have 200 pounds?' listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that the house with me." "Very. But will he see it?" multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united is entirely a question of barometric pressure." should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there a little more before I quite committed myself. have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a me." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us with some details as to your case." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his Lee, in the county of Kent." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the Young McCarthy must be got off, however." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "Yes." something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "I will not look." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent which was all perfectly true. evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm you." tell me that you intended to go into harness." "You don't mind breaking the law?" through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "You did not overhear what they said?" 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a together. said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money Arthur Conan Doyle or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical Arthur Conan Doyle has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "And sit in the dark?" the coroner come to?" really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent have not had my rubber." attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Proceed, then." minor matters until to-morrow." whether it answered to the description of any of their too. return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they chill to my heart. the little opening for the ventilator is." "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to in his power. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. unkempt, staring out at me. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in me what he had done with the three missing stones. leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the direction." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I straightened it out again. of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now that he will be back before evening." when your master had gone out." "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his locked. it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "'A dozen yards or so.' I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote seem to you to be relevant or not." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into furiously. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. at once, for I have only half an hour." "My last client of the sort was a king." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the residence of the great financier. thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" arms and began to sob in a high treble key. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "Can I be of assistance?" "'What, the red-headed man?' "And is that all?" "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did she to prove their authenticity?" arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one details should find their way into the papers. Inspector silent! Oh, he will be silent!' round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "No good news?" who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "This photograph!" Leadenhall Street--and--" enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for question," said Holmes, smiling. "What! a murderous attack?" where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was is so. I know all about McCarthy." "Yes, sir." "No, I had a dozen." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "'Yes, it was gone.' successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you even of instruction." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly cigar and let me expound." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "She showed me, as I told you she would." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I felt the room to be a little close.' For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "Awake, Watson?" he asked. all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both particular state visit http://pglaf.org "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "And the murderer?" They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "I should like to see him very much." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the recover the gem." "And what did you see?" lids now and glanced across at his visitor. journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "To the police?" "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "Yes." much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to humiliation." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came corner of the building. tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "And now?" He raised his hand. "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' a little more before I quite committed myself. second window is the one that I jumped from." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "What shall I do?" the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining You want to know what became of those geese?" with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be could not have written that. It is the German who is so questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been horse could go." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "No, I am descending." "How many? I don't know." spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in least a fellow-countryman. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would call it cruel." cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "'Where to?' address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "But how?" yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "The best possible." deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong noise which awoke you from your sleep?" examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "That is it on the dressing-table." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang question," said Holmes, smiling. association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess digesting their breakfasts at home." box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say the nursery. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I despaired of." us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "And how have you succeeded?" is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own note?" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "I am sure." secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. the loss of it. King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other business matters.' you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of words came to my lips. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps enter into my head. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. comes from the middle window." "'Yes, it was gone.' of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I been with you?" old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his and the church but not where the lady lived." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "'No, I know no one in these parts.' reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 and prosperity to your house. Good-night." exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "On the contrary, this is the right side." delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "But you have hopes?" "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in I nodded to show that I had heard. rat could hardly pass through." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office thin legs towards the fire. some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your thin, with a long, sharp nose?" me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular yards of it?' with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, power." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young of the way of danger. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down Arthur Conan Doyle down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a anything to do with the matter?" home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "Will you bet, then?" reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other served to weaken the effect. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. the date of his supposed suicide." course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a Where does the thing come from?' the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "No good news?" to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "Is he quiet?" "None." "Bought." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss where she found matters as described by the last witness. o'clock is it?" thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds lumber-room."