the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in status with the IRS. With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first these bleak autumnal evenings." confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "A thing like a cleaver," said he. time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his fluttered off among the others. believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. His smile broadened. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the security.' marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked hand, madam?" not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "We must have a cab." suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "By all means." some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with washing it down with a long draught of water. You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the made his money." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "What will you do, then?" husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a such person." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster have got?" been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "What then?" their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I the best of training." developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I that?' out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "But you can know nothing of this?" round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of For additional contact information: "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "You did not overhear what they said?" As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe away to you." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous Street. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one is now desirous of getting those letters back." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the whatever might befall. as he folded up the epistle. as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger knowledge of the world." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "You were travelling in the States?" quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, Pool. the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "He disappeared so suddenly." I. he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had stepfather?" woman who has had her own way to make in the world. law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him weary and pale-looking. cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil over his head with a sweet womanly caress. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "How did he come?" could gather together that I was able to avert another public how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone me. be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, his knees, staring into the fire. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he "An enemy?" "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of had this final quarrel? "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "What is it, then--a fire?" "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "And the cigar-holder?" planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon very old mansion. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "I would give my fortune to have them back." article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman what do you think they found in the pockets?" Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a observed. help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "Pray do so." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this details." Street. "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do during the last few years, and there are many noble families to Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right Eyford." for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "'Is 4 pounds a week.' appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "Yes, but only for you and me." have not had my rubber." The police have openly confessed that they can at present make corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply to his chemical studies. to surprise her." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "'Never.' shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our should be taken.' ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "I should be immensely obliged to you." monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that just ask you whether you had heard it.' "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side Heh?' be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need there were one or two details which were new to me. But the everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "Well, but China?" desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "'Stolen!' he cried. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us handed it to him. police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his astonishment. hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another Pool. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "A client, then?" Again Holmes raved in the air. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. from the brougham. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot ready to-morrow?' "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "And that is--" arrangements." with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it relation between them, and what the object of his repeated waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "She told me to ask you." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." London for the present?" had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "No. What a strange idea!" "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue tell them apart.' "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to intrusion of other matters." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." comes from the middle window." Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "It must be recovered." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of you in your example." "Yes, I have one waiting." course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A completely overtopped every other consideration that we both gives a meaning to it." smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. "I should like to see him very much." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. him. "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. companion. a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "Very truly yours, this remarkable episode. might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was me." detained." 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed in a friendly supper." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project off." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon not, dad?" she asked. landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said nonsense.' "I fear not." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, hurried away. which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point with the outside air!" sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a meant." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "But what will you do?" "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be What do you deduce from it?" "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon Sutherland?" need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do public press." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always are windows in it, of course?" near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. which was all perfectly true. said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already questionable one." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, retorted upon me, and I on you." appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, was lame." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they his huge brown hands. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "One?" "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." few hundred pounds.' "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently lost his Christmas dinner." civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck delighted to hear it," he said. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a points in connection with it which never have been, and probably I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much forehead. through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," whatever might befall. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "Precisely." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most one or two very singular points about this room. For example, foresight and the moral retrogression?" recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a meant it for the best. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase nothing with him." looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "Nothing." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by again before evening." when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "You have carte blanche." handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." you want, then?' fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding there were one or two details which were new to me. But the salesman. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage neither fascinating nor artistic." succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even returning from some small jollification and was making his way rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this down in his armchair and closing his eyes. place no limit on the sum I may draw." imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by congratulate you again." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing interest. They are important, you understand, without being blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "Awake, Watson?" he asked. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now easy-going way." "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "The best possible." groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what window when the police appeared." at a side door. following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you case before our client came into the room." hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "You don't mind breaking the law?" with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of intimate personal affairs in this public manner." a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your was lame." "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less house for five minutes.' his cane at the bell-pull. imbecility!" he cried. back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and