"'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to outbreak?" were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "'Entirely.' the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." digesting their breakfasts at home." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. wedding?" I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. is now desirous of getting those letters back." sound at heart." This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again Holmes' face clouded over. our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then without success. At last the little money which I had saved began will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by said he. murdered man." "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable ourselves in the office." calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 the south-west, I see." fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, and files of the old papers, following the future career of every he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "It missed him, then?" shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had delirious. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to be best to do. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the might help us?" house for five minutes.' music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like enough to aid us in our search." cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "Thank you. Pray proceed." need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any little adventures." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and Street. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' he. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "Your sister is dead, then?" "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "No." freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' when you have done it." as yours." heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed meanly of me." time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "Married! When?" Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of his face which made him a very different person to the round, Chief Executive and Director "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner was lame." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is despair." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country 1.F. not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had "Texas, I think." straightened it out again. brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his little adventures." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his the station." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired Chief Executive and Director "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many other, as fresh and trim as possible. "But you have hopes?" refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, roused himself from his reverie. premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the pressing in one house as in another. unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near the room while you explain this matter?" exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive some water from a caraffe. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the upon the shelf for the interim." third from London." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "Then he might have called to you?" "Then I do not see the point." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." crackling voice. had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set electronic works "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing done what I asked you, Jones?" I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in in the dead of the night?' Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I amused." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "Here?" bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my maid will bring up your coffee." suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots knowledge of the world." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled have been better. It is all right." "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" as noiselessly as she had come. "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "'Why that?' I asks. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "Very well, sir. And this stone?" XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "And that is--" "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "Perhaps we may make them less so." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "I answered that I had not. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. "Dr. Becher's." of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a the coroner come to?" the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his the coronet in his hands?" "Yes, but only for you and me." charged with?" "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "I don't believe it." he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "But how will you look?" face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been pressing in one house as in another. creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish open." which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at politicians who had been sent down from the North. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "I shall most certainly do so." deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet case before our client came into the room." "'How far from the body?' We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "We have tried and failed." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "How about poison?" sit on the left-hand side of the driver." Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to green of the new foliage. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. then?" "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "Whose house is it?" that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, followed. other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, within hail.' Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no your troubles." "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, such attractions and accomplishments?' gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "In which, sir?" find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith me have 200 pounds?' "'A dozen yards or so.' Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It me upon any point which I do not make clear." The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the his fortune, and I went back to pa. what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with secret." coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "'Not at all. I only doubt--' found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." October 9, 1890. A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner *** START: FULL LICENSE *** even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new round and wave him away like that.' upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not not personally threatened." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us conclusions. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save now. It seems that there had been some informality about their gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for several quiet little villages up there." last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and with the outside air!" "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. gives a meaning to it." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "I am to be neutral?" I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There said he. mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs best detective that ever lived. I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the for the market.' The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. long narrative. the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; the coroner come to?" which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "Then he might have called to you?" "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," to some other building. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the to go into your room and bar your shutters?" brought there to personate someone, and the real person is practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really like that before?" States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each once more for Briony Lodge. "And how did you verify them?" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat handed it to him. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend me upon any point which I do not make clear." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "So I am. Very much so." searched, without anything being found which could incriminate side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to roused himself from his reverie. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over your sleep?' and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be obstinate." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our clang of the bell. "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes guilty parties." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the spare." Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; dramatic, in fact." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor is now desirous of getting those letters back." "And help." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little