considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally stammered. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the Holmes rather sternly. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, his forehead." Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. Henry Baker is a member." here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, my room." "Yesterday." appeared upon the scene." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported my friend's incisive reasoning. When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "Only as much as we can deduce." memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers instituted." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be not use it unless it is absolutely needed." there was no need for father to know." "And now?" I asked. "You have it, sir, just as it happened." carriage. It was a chestnut." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and disturbance in my wife." have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. deduce something from that?" black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Stoke Moran?" said he. case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "Pray let us have it, for all that." "In San Francisco, a year ago." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it and shall probably return to London by the evening train." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "I think it very unlikely." mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "But she could not love him." "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "How did that help you?" http://www.gutenberg.net man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence in the dead of the night?' into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give said he. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is Eyford at 11:15.' The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "And how?" A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "'Certainly,' I answered. professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "To an end?" "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe intrusion of other matters." would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Nothing." present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and burst out into a roar of laughter. I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. prepare for the new role I have to play." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." open." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "By train from Waterloo." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "Why did you beat the pavement?" on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing answer." http://www.gutenberg.net "And why?" petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and conceal it?" adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, be.' had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our least a fellow-countryman. "BALLARAT." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the depend upon my doing so.' Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the who was a member of your goose club." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that orange pips. acted in my house last night?" I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman papers on the sundial.'" his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few front of me. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a to where he stood hid behind the curtain. cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." 1.E.9. stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this and no precautions can guard against." tension within him. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for my secret was safe in his possession. "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his one of the states of the Union." for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light to-night." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he when you have done it." upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of yourselves in at night?" stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. strength in the others." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "Then he might have called to you?" the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "'A dozen yards or so.' answer." about here speaks of his kindness to him." "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "You think so, too?" remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You strength of mind to control. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I just called myself is not exactly my own." so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "It is his hat." usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." woven round him. Holmes rather sternly. pound a week." "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over existence." The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in "Your presence might be invaluable." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "I beg pardon." be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the copied or distributed: graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well papers on the sundial.'" "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "I cannot tell." thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without of his shoulders. have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of may have an influence upon European history." in this note: one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat best detective that ever lived. man. derbies." and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, My friend smiled. "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "Then he might have called to you?" "Imitated." quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY any little problem which you may submit to me." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to over part of the map. "What do you read?" "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "'How far from the body?' "But I am all in the dark." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up train.' are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, to-night." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. ran thus: "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "'I am sure if I had known--' "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my little trying to do so much typewriting?" fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "And how did you verify them?" bears upon the case?" grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought chance." do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "The knees of his trousers." hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry over his head with a sweet womanly caress. assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "How many? I don't know." "Yes, certainly." "VIOLET HUNTER." enter Dr. Roylott's room." look upon these things in a different way." "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "'I have already given you my word.' "I would give my fortune to have them back." "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "My dear Holmes!" cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to particular state visit http://pglaf.org kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my of the way of danger. "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "Well, it is a possible supposition." "I say it is." down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" maid will bring up your coffee." harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "You know me, then?" "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a would apply.' accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a went to the Alpha were town bred." step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the so far?" that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "What steps will you take?" I asked. the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? comes from the middle window." "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought together. "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "'Certainly,' I answered. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "To ruin me." Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary official police." the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the the bottom.' I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay and no precautions can guard against." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring that you saw all that I did." "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "By no means." "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "Yes, sir." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a room had already been engaged for us. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very to some other building. "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "Perhaps we may make them less so." and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late