"Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock his eyes and forehead. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some window when the police appeared." the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which details should find their way into the papers. Inspector more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "I warn you that they are very incomplete." silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." quickly through a disagreeable task. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only the running down." Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one fluttered off among the others. settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, province." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing enough to aid us in our search." fuss that is made over them." "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to answered with a sidelong glance. his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "The landlord of the Alpha." For additional contact information: "No." before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "Well, but China?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, manager. "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. jewels which you have stolen?' deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the call for protection in the marriage market, for the present even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take Pope's Court. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. presume?" Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to second." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which down in his armchair and closing his eyes. the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one again on its way. the matter." more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain the very morning of the wedding." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "Very much so." expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "Then you may be so with me." trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. speckled band?" "Of Friday, June 19th." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search II. thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "Really! You surprise me." and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers late!' aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is placed his cuttings. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our what I may call a really hard day's work." wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "'Oh, no.' don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office way in everything. "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "'Very good.' at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "No. What a strange idea!" maiden herself was most instructive." "I saw her in conversation with her maid." in a very precise fashion." there when the Rucastles went away." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, tension within him. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing have one." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of events than those which have happened in my own family." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "It looks newer than the other things?" of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was look dissatisfied." other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest at home. silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, when your master had gone out." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." the armchair which I pushed forward for him. said Mr. Holder. you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "And how did you verify them?" showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture Dr. Gregory B. Newby "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "What have you done?" asked Holmes. writers could invent nothing more crude." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" minor matters until to-morrow." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue cost them two and thirty pounds." stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at less than 26s. 4d. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the I have it here in my museum." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "And your father? Did you tell him?" and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in of the way of danger. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "But his left-handedness." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" round and wave him away like that.' your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready papers must be those that are destroyed.' I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic the very morning of the wedding." was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in little adventures." unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the conceal it?" better grown goose." Have you good authority for what you say?" in darkness. indeed happy." France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would skylight. gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty away to you." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "9th. McCauley cleared. of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I which was all perfectly true. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "Do you know him?" Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously nothing with him." acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have less than 26s. 4d. violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small standing smiling on the door-step. unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who "'And what salary do you ask?' no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "But it has twice been burgled." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are a few minutes he said that it would be all right. the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. your only hope of safety." ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "I fear not." round with crates and massive boxes. very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small morning." "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab charged with?" buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "Pray do so." horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be upon the white wrist. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black know what is wrong with it.' "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "No. What a strange idea!" labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another 11:15.' the running down." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the I have it here in my museum." the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to towards the blaze. be.' this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an which was all perfectly true. "The knees of his trousers." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped locked. the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "You have carte blanche." to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" a few minutes he said that it would be all right. The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle to where he stood hid behind the curtain. realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "Yes." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London is entirely a question of barometric pressure." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock taking in every detail of the apartment. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in singular points about the case. What did the police think of the side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how cigars in their mouths. do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close knowledge of the world." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Pray do so." main points of my analysis." shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of relief. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment if only as a check to my own memory." Countess of Morcar's?" along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "Very. But will he see it?" standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light in his hands." confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "Then I shall certainly come." "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "Then you may be so with me." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "I have seen the police." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Never." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, never to learn it at all." "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, that I am arrested." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "A confidential servant?" "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent there in twenty minutes." active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "And why?" place of silver." perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "A greater distance to travel." to arrive at through this?" reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily thin, with a long, sharp nose?" bare slabs of marble. recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a chance." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "What will you do, then?" matters immensely." years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "No good news?" companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same will be renamed. John Swain, of St. Augustine. very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such some mystery and the punishment of some crime." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "'Where could I find him?' "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "Nearly eleven." figure." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "'What, the red-headed man?' "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "You have a clue?" an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits at my own good fortune. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he place of silver." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a