he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have hour?' "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know Project Gutenberg-tm works. quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "A call for help, you thought?" The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "Yes, it was twisted." "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more trying to your nerves." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "Eh? What was that?" that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "Only as much as we can deduce." "The decline of his fortunes, then?" hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the your equipment. green of the new foliage. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a been with you?" "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones upon an income of about 60 pounds." the King without delay." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "And the murderer?" fire. You quite follow me?" "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who Count Von Kramm." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "I should like to see him very much." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "He said too much." "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "And how did he make his money?" business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if Arthur Conan Doyle yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some you, my dear young lady?' to miss it." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." you in yours." to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "Bought." "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands "Imitated." about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "How did you deduce the select?" she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and you came in." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily to where he stood hid behind the curtain. controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before one or two very singular points about this room. For example, and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "You think so, too?" and capable of preserving a secret.' "Nothing." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, sneer upon his pale face. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. he. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my Mary, has deserted me." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "What then?" and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment to that open window." the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was of the efforts of the United States government and of the better you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. writers could invent nothing more crude." "Just look it up, then." perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "Yes?" Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, tell them apart.' starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door business." "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "You think so, too?" Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert carried out of court." shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, what these perils are?" baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "I shall most certainly do so." I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." once more for Briony Lodge. "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two for and were ordered to this address. as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate your sleep?' "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out "Which are?" his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the just called myself is not exactly my own." hand, madam?" very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "I would give my fortune to have them back." it." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with not interfere, come what may. You understand?" exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each main points of my analysis." Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "Did your wife hear all this?" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, is so. I know all about McCarthy." value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into business matters.' outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "You will not go there first?" It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "I promise," said Holmes. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet The summons was a brief and urgent one. He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed crowd. "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "'Yes, sir.' there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but strength." and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the to that open window." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "And leave your case unfinished?" house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by the so-precious time, but come!' much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes people in all walks of life. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very away into the river." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two Holmes' thin, eager face. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which fled together." butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "Thank you. And your address?" "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be what is your own theory as to what took place?" "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in to take care of herself." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open his face which made him a very different person to the round, not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not II. was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of done what I asked you, Jones?" until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and to arrive at through this?" been." and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "And now?" He raised his hand. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "He said too much." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, the roots. tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he directly by questioning you." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white me. You must get home instantly and act." became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for quickly through a disagreeable task. "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "It is very clear." everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "I don't believe it." drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, deduce something from that?" from you?" shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method noble correspondent could be. Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down villagers almost as much as their master. "Then, as to money?" "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "'Never.' "I am sure." "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. see a sister of mine apply for." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of front of the hall door has given its name to the place. He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a Cross for the Continent." whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the shoulder; "he's all right." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, depend upon your compliance." hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "I know where it is." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "Precisely." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a was shining brightly. "'Ample.' feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary business came to an end." its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found colour had been driven from his face. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened union?" "Was your sister dressed?" furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was mysterious end." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up instincts rose up against that laugh. are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with States. humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling astonishment. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." straighten it?" police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "And when will you call?" employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we means taking possession of that which another person has a prior only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away asked. river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing For additional contact information: "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "And how in the world did you find them?" who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both and laid it on the table. sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." these bleak autumnal evenings." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next nonsense.' the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This populous neighbourhood." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "'And what salary do you ask?' town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the of your young ladies.' "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Thank you. And your address?" "I cannot imagine." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "We must sit without light. He would see it through the just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the him." extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the and it need not interfere very much with one's other one of the states of the Union." receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own beg that you will break it off." "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has galvanised. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free swore that no one else had been in the front room during the what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "Very murderous indeed." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the not as remarkable as your advertisement." standing smiling on the door-step. although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One power." these bleak autumnal evenings." in the dead of the night?' bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he his fortune, and I went back to pa. fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an your Highness to the police-station?" a few minutes he said that it would be all right. a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. already been minutely examined." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "10th. John Swain cleared. "So I am. Very much so." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "Was she in good spirits?" daring than any effort of the imagination." Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread