him nearly every evening." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "Then how many are there?" Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things asked. interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, roused himself from his reverie. something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an vanished into the darkness. and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into here and I will read it to you: a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as charged with?" They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "It is solved." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying gone. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "Where is it, then?" and a shock of very red hair. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the that I am arrested." held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "Then, as to money?" admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Whose house is it?" "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate a room. saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his cause to be." American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a works. See paragraph 1.E below. the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous the side-table." envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." it." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and chemical work which was so dear to him. and capable of preserving a secret.' so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in horse could go." grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the the inner apartment." estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the matter." fuss that is made over them." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Very well, sir. And this stone?" despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is out." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that putting in the horse. "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable his eyes and forehead. down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause me." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "'Where could I find him?' the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough narrative." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event you found me to-night--and running through the front room she which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with front of me. news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a already referred to. where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "And how have you succeeded?" didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "Yes." anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "And how did you find out?" hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third deduce something from that?" decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "I saw her in conversation with her maid." discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four Again Holmes raved in the air. "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "But what harm can there be in that?" bare slabs of marble. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "I fear not." "Yes." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would the tragedy. a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low photograph a cabinet?" "I am about to be married." know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are the running down." and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Ah!" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his newspaper selections." but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "Texas, I think." occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "Where is it, then?" George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as answer." brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until third from London." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "None." This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the His name is Francis Prosper." here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have asked. down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Yes." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with have one." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he obstinate." to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Ha! you find it so?" outsides of the windows. in one or two places in England?' "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I points to suicide?" object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign "A call for help, you thought?" to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "And now?" I asked. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, the matter?" "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "The King of Scandinavia." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some only touch the interest." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a success. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, invisible to me," I remarked. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a papers." white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the attention." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "Quite so." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. that there was nothing in it, after all." bird I ate is country bred." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the shoulder. expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "'I am sure that I do not know.' "What then?" As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the it. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again Doctor, of the paper and the date." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are you want, then?' the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have Foundation I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "But not more so than I to find you." mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the place of silver." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! was once confined in the cab my mission was practically Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The pressing in one house as in another. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make the salesman. work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "But you were on a friendly footing?" the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped you?' "But how did you gain them?" it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless politicians who had been sent down from the North. the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "Certainly." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a of Mr. Rucastle's." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his know that the truth is known." Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he feature." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "And from a noble client?" with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just them?" She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Could he throw no light?" "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "What will you say?" business came to an end." come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, with her." dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there "Do you receive much company?" he asked. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "In the cells." "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable and prosperity to your house. Good-night." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "He said too much." your co-operation." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "I have solved it." be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "I would pay ten." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "Nothing." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "And how did he make his money?" the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Eh? What was that?" tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man,