of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "Do you receive much company?" he asked. Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "Yes, it would be as well." "It is very clear." opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that humiliation." residence of the great financier. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no read over the extraordinary announcement. consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "Pray do so." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in gone. is a common subject for conversation. "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no province." Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "And how did you find out?" princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "Witness: It was. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "What are they?" It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that it. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "None." a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, door?" from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. habit of advancing money.' dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing he. a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I of." I took the paper from him and read as follows: error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and in his hands." "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of may have an influence upon European history." quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is where we are going." Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Where is it, then?" girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off imbecility!" he cried. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during room had already been engaged for us. "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "'Oh, no.' on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The your room." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Oh, fresh and glossy." side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a characteristics, but those are the more obvious." with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a second." gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." the dangers which encompass me." until night should bring an explanation. your sleep?' mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction him to be an active member of the medical profession." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you opened a pocket-book and took out a note. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must indeed which he could not unravel. after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, matter." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "How do you know, then?" He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." your billet.' glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, threw himself down with his face to the pillow. just ask you whether you had heard it.' a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely from you?" "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you gentleman's clothes. "No, but the enclosure is." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out "You think so, too?" "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by indeed which he could not unravel. As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Clair, of Lee." woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's points to suicide?" upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House friends, not even his own brother. everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "The Cedars?" to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which possible that we could bring him back to her? foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden that?' produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Come in!" said Holmes. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Entirely." bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. their singular warning or token before them when starting upon have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my have got?" "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most character. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "What then?" something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? think, you have already met." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable his face which made him a very different person to the round, quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I to-morrow." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "On Monday." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See man. "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but bill, which interests me deeply." "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a which we had just quitted. One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was in a friendly supper." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to something of him before." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom chance." been shamefully used." "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest observed. "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I McCarthy's innocence. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is what is your own theory as to what took place?" absorbing." The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high as he folded up the epistle. Stoke Moran." either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what the bed, and you in that chair." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily acted in my house last night?" reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his lamp in his hand. Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to an introduction to him?" "Very murderous indeed." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "Nothing." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am anything to a woman, for she would have her way." happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Can I be of assistance?" "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "But his left-handedness." her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he he died? "No." "In which, sir?" huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Come in!" said Holmes. that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "And when will you call?" black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "And how?" "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "And you thought he was pulled back?" ready to-morrow?' "How many? I don't know." "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "You have carte blanche." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small all that?" stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "Do you know him?" English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and three fields round his house, and there he would take his he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than enough to aid us in our search." with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. the inquest, and which are worth considering." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "Will you bet, then?" this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. "Where is it, then?" while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been his forehead." 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case The police have openly confessed that they can at present make locked. bears upon the case?" late!' cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "Not particularly." Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "No, distinctly professional." Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "Imitated." but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he thin, with a long, sharp nose?" boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months go back?" "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "What is it?" married her." thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "'Which dealer's?' Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "But you were on a friendly footing?" roused himself from his reverie. Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Dark enough and sinister enough." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "'Yes.' "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting ordinary clothes on?" and capable of preserving a secret.' "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" people don't know." strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "In the cells." cheerful." very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique intimate personal affairs in this public manner." fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and Pool. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago."