"And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "'Yes, I promise.' my friend's incisive reasoning. the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying 1.E.9. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, Edgeware Road. day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in undoubtedly my uncle's." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the over his head with a sweet womanly caress. this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in someone who had been in Australia." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, jewels which you have stolen?' "Yes." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some papers." the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "What have you to say now?" myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "I would give my fortune to have them back." black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any Chief Executive and Director despair." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "He is dead," cried several voices. "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "What of the rat, then?" husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my furiously. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "But you were on a friendly footing?" accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "And you can do nothing until then?" "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low get her out of the way." her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging Arthur Conan Doyle her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "And I." He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "And the murderer?" which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. head. So long, then!" works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. crime. his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "But he might be a bachelor." which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after 'please.'" PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "What is it, then--a fire?" you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. not personally threatened." thin legs towards the fire. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. views." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I weighed down with some great anxiety. if only as a check to my own memory." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at his wife has ceased to love him." London for the present?" gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets call you and give you the chance." again on its way. make me his representative both with the servants and with the ill-usage at the hands of fortune. looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "No good news?" been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. grasp, he hurried from the room. when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend when your master had gone out." "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." as the one I chose?' thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Who was the criminal, then?" "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "'Entirely.' 'please.'" "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "I was mad--insane." violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "What! Had he lost his wife?" he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your sofa. This way, please!" "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. God! What an exposure! What can I do?" was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of daring than any effort of the imagination." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man future lives." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a be. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I any." "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed this unhappy family?" little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive placed his cuttings. your own bird, so if you wish--" inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I this as likely?" friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all coat-tails." "Where, then?" Pope's Court, Fleet Street." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight to his chemical studies. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." mysterious end." would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "What have you to say now?" "It goes to the housekeeper's room." newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed Countess of Morcar's?" forebodings. hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle your bag." "What is it, then--a fire?" frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, McCarthy." woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming carpenter." to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low it." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One back into the street. there has been an enclosure here!" outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. chill to my heart. into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an lamp. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "And what did you learn from him?" 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "But what will you do?" understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "I do." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this invisible to me," I remarked. the Assizes." value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do telegram would bring me down to your help." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "'What, the red-headed man?' child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at is a common subject for conversation. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I the bed, and you in that chair." "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for made him keep the appointment." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore that I am arrested." say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "So I heard. You have him here?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the go from here to the Strand." shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "One of his hands." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable acquaintance?" "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. beg that you will break it off." reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting triumphant cloud from his cigarette. that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a it right.' rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, you." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa think you a quite exceptional woman." what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. in one or two places in England?' gone. His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "Was she in good spirits?" note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door 1.E.9. us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "At the wedding breakfast." "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, she used." constraint." "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and together. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." hardly wander." "You will not go there first?" provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "What!" he roared. is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, some city in a dream. might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's me have 200 pounds?' and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "May I see it?" explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "But the mystery?" asked. the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he situation." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "Yes, from Horsham." "No, distinctly professional." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "If I can be of use." digesting their breakfasts at home." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. whatever might befall. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "But how?" while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "We must have a cab." Edgeware Road. "Stolen, then." "My private note-paper." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that "My own seal." be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him 'I should be able to look after that for you.' are, I think, all that we need." like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, of the way of danger. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "My last client of the sort was a king." have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "No, I am descending." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain if only as a check to my own memory." what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that What do you deduce from it?" We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' closely." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "Never." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock in the port of London." works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter most interesting one." remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "Yes." fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the with her." A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't thin legs towards the fire. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin 1.F. companion. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is point in the dark hollow of his hand. it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a in the port of London." and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. and put his glass in his pocket. seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Where to?" dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was arms and began to sob in a high treble key. the one as in the other." the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was rat could hardly pass through." lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have corner of the building. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and papers on the sundial.'" and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "I have seen the police." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there been anything against him. He had for years been known as a them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "Then you may entirely rely on me." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was