into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. until night should bring an explanation. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "I see no marks." certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you me, and I could not think that his explanation of the not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "What I expected to see." most interesting one." This is what he says: have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true burst out into a roar of laughter. "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "Yes." http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs acquaintance?" PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "No." face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the went to the Alpha were town bred." "Yes." companion quietly. confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have whole matter to your consideration." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave handed it to him. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply Stoke Moran." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to bachelor.' Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "'It is locked up,' I answered. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "I beg pardon." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity that threaten you." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus deduce something from that?" "Nothing?" practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted your billet.' very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "I will do it." money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and hour?' "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "And Irene Adler?" Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, danger is over." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the fire. You quite follow me?" "I never have." stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "And sit in the dark?" and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "This photograph!" "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. highroad, where all traces were lost. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "But we can't all be." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I habit of advancing money.' upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "I say it is." cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and house for five minutes.' to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "We must have a cab." the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "Yes, I have one waiting." woman." "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." tail." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my Does that suggest anything?" his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. what do you think they found in the pockets?" clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of the side-table." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' nice household for a young lady." there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be to me. it with his own hands." "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "Frequently." face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was business in the City. She little knew what. became a certainty. bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat towards the blaze. post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before shaken than I had ever seen him. may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back roused himself from his reverie. "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has that you can jump it.' to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she you for a few hours?" "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we their singular warning or token before them when starting upon and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and tell them apart.' yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this was once confined in the cab my mission was practically accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, there were one or two details which were new to me. But the of." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "Precisely so. But how--" My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "Witness: Nothing definite. the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." gentleman's clothes. clanging. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as delirious. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of kindly on the shoulder. as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with horse could go." all?" solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the to surprise her." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction From what you have told me I think that it is possible that of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say whatever might befall. him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. returned to France?" families. Now for the facts. which are rolled in Rotterdam." absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it down. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "It must be recovered." Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. to miss it." the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at enter into my head. which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience over here." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by young Openshaw's." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "At half-wages, in fact." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like are windows in it, of course?" International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and the night.' "Why, what do you mean?" scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he the so-precious time, but come!' some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "Nothing?" lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a it." purpose equally well?" sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the friend's singular character. which it had come upon my father." "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "I am sure." Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, wedding?" convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "The rest you will leave in our hands." "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "She walked into the breakfast-room." "But how will you look?" the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding ago." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. there was no need for father to know." prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can arms and began to sob in a high treble key. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. were new raised from a basin. writer." equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "Pray continue your narrative." Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "How did you trace it, then?" knowledge of the world." "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted discontent upon his features. way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just experiences." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "I don't believe it." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "Awake, Watson?" he asked. as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "How did he come?" know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my once more. office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able occupations.' received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his could not have written that. It is the German who is so "No sign of it?" brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to letters?" the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every photograph?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "My Mary? Impossible!" but preventing her from injuring another. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "My own seal." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "Has he come with you to-night?" "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I charged with?" the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" business at Coburg Square is serious." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all nonsense.' "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the outside." "That is it on the dressing-table." you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "But how will you look?" stalked out of the room. tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey you in yours." "But she could not love him." I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "Precisely so. But how--" fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." be. heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my to change my dress. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to electronic works "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, The summons was a brief and urgent one. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were o'clock is it?" old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of detained." XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that