in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "'Where to?' years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "Ample." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "And what did you see?" "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger may have an influence upon European history." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." your troubles." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. thirty. said I. look upon these things in a different way." "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the if she died from some sudden fright." connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always himself in a perplexing position. so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he the address that was given us in the advertisement. cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger criminal. We have already had experience of such." to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was spark where all is dark to me." "So it appears." as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the directors, with the result that you have seen." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than started for the Temple to see my husband. have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain skylight. "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came back to my heart. with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "I will try. What is it?" "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may straighten it?" charged with?" obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is "Deserted you?" opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "Really! You surprise me." Holmes rather sternly. matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "He slept on the premises." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he through." Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "You know me, then?" really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "What! Had he lost his wife?" returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "I think that it is very probable." He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the morning." here." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I ran thus: be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that be there in time for your coming." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "Did your wife hear all this?" face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. best detective that ever lived. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. it right.' hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are morning." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "Frequently." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss friends, not even his own brother. greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back amused." the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into presume?" seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive been able to understand it, in a very few words. upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be chill to my heart. you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is examine." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "You have compromised yourself seriously." clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "Absolutely none." problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for had formerly been in part my own. too. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "'Yes, sir.' Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here room?" fish-monger and a tide-waiter." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." helping a boy to put up the shutters. "'It is locked up,' I answered. had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with away into the river." "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads of." am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "It is possible." copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone about here speaks of his kindness to him." "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second them present such singular features as the strange train of of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "But of what society?" "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." triumphant cloud from his cigarette. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the know that the truth is known." to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "Then, how do you know?" "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so astonishment. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his of." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to digesting their breakfasts at home." coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "Perhaps we may make them less so." "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if discontent upon his features. that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "I have seen the police." writers could invent nothing more crude." myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage have had none more fantastic than this." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall corner of the building. "The vanishing of the lady." array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, them, and came down just as you departed. Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." and a shock of very red hair. legal crime." "I see many objections to any such theory." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. entirely devoid of interest." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert "We must sit without light. He would see it through the were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "Yes." "How on earth--" would apply.' them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain some city in a dream. in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "And why?" propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to away to you." "That is not always so easy." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I extraordinary contortions. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt enough to aid us in our search." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "Get out!" said he. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with "Because he was handy and would come cheap." everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began you." this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that into the room. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "Your sister is dead, then?" the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door experiences." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "To an end?" "I have hopes." before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "Very well, sir. And this stone?" shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the his face. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "There is the writing." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her digesting their breakfasts at home." passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "Can I be of assistance?" Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove is so. I know all about McCarthy." he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If ill-usage at the hands of fortune. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a entirely lost his self-respect." Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "Then you may be so with me." a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to Chief Executive and Director vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "By no means." "'I have heard so.' interested in these little problems, and since you are good be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. *** START: FULL LICENSE *** stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my a little more before I quite committed myself. the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy was once confined in the cab my mission was practically that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning could not account in any way for the presence of the missing yet." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "About a month then." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "If I can be of use." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." there was no need for father to know." clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "What do you make of that, Watson?" Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." seem to you to be relevant or not." a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "My opinion is in no way altered." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "Proceed, then." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I joking. "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a my secret was safe in his possession. perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "You are all wrong." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "Yes, sir." should be so warm over such a trifle." "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what