burst out into a roar of laughter. own family. "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "And your father? Did you tell him?" on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll to-night's adventure." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to who was a member of your goose club." white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked business came to an end." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the one else, I think." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly chair. he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He to change my dress. "'About the same.' off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "No, I am descending." exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "His face fell immediately. "The doctor?" "A call for help, you thought?" it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "Not particularly." Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round learned something! Where are the gems?" the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never correct than the official force." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would go--none." during that time.' "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." colonel looking down at me. to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door fattened it expressly for you.' Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful sofa. This way, please!" doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. the dangers which encompass me." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a galvanised. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "I will, Miss Turner." dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "I am in hopes that she does." mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the for and were ordered to this address. and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," fuss that is made over them." relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some Chief Executive and Director and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should down in his armchair and closing his eyes. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have purpose of examination. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon have not had my rubber." "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left yet." town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "That is not always so easy." and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "It must be recovered." heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "And how did you find out?" exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "Stolen, then." a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "Have you her photograph?" The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove appeared upon the scene." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "None." guilty parties." "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "I cannot imagine." himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, side. impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "Witness: It was. were wasted." "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming are, I think, all that we need." "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "Will you bet, then?" perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which that before taking the final step I should like to submit the "Dirty?" bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the intrusion of other matters." and prosperity to your house. Good-night." should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came for securing the situation." perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps shoulder. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious with frightened eyes at his accuser. for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the lips." prove to be little relation between the different incidents of go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a do." shaken than I had ever seen him. passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "Here?" of a light. taking in every detail of the apartment. generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "And the murderer?" was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have hour." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "I have solved it." The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left seven miles from Eyford Station.' crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a throat." and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "Never." The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of of his shoulders. metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second of the way of danger. could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much and capable of preserving a secret.' fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "Certainly, madam." "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that had picked up in the wood. the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. his forehead." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." when your master had gone out." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we he died? therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He as he folded up the epistle. "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, works. and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building made his money." rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," waste of energy." the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said I approached. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed that I am arrested." houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "What then?" Where does the thing come from?' events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "Deserted you?" fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "But the mystery?" "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and so far?" "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the electronic works invisible to me," I remarked. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for It was close upon four before the door opened, and a owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "Precisely." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and lost nothing by them." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what lost nothing by them." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the quick march!" to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, begin with, and I had not got mine yet." he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. question. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered geese which you supplied to the Alpha." upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the point in the dark hollow of his hand. "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "It is a murder, then?" made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate morning." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, the coronet in his hand?" brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. the station." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are him." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "And what did you see?" "Then he might have called to you?" window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the voice, changing her seat as requested. with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was out." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "'About the same.' and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "'In my own bureau.' upon the white wrist. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "Certainly." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "I cannot as yet see any connection." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so assist you in forming an opinion." anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "I do." "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "Yes, sir." it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as look dissatisfied." "And how in the world did you find them?" shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "'You cannot say what it was?' caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless their singular warning or token before them when starting upon trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I I have it here in my museum." very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for once more on the important position which you have been fortunate for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not But Holmes shook his head gravely. "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his make me his representative both with the servants and with the "That is not always so easy." ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside observed. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "No, I had a dozen." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. you want, then?' "No." see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon Street. "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of to where he stood hid behind the curtain. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's that, and I came down." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by