Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "And the cigar-holder?" a room. DISSOLVED. passage and a tap at the door. is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged anything to a woman, for she would have her way." interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards McCarthy's innocence. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "That you are never beaten." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "'It is locked up,' I answered. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Then how many are there?" all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked conversation I have gathered that they have been married about coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "That was it, sir." "VIOLET HUNTER." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "Where, indeed?" business at Coburg Square is serious." "I would pay ten." conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "No, thank goodness, she did not." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and o'clock is it?" "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "VIOLET HUNTER." from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered started for the Temple to see my husband. searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, License. You must require such a user to return or no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed and it need not interfere very much with one's other "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "Yes." "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side fish-monger and a tide-waiter." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "I have a cab outside." the driver. As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the system of imprisonment?" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is with her." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the hopeless attempt at recovering them." been with you?" "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he morning." Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "And how did you verify them?" when you have done it." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "No?" possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of It may be so in this case, also." so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, gentleman's clothes. at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I this as likely?" "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "I have my revolver," said I. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of me what he had done with the three missing stones. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time someone who had been in Australia." to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "'Not at all. I only doubt--' action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would must be when I saw the door open.' "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer were unconscious?" drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I know what is wrong with it.' was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "Whose house is it?" "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone shall not find me ungrateful." which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called "Stoke Moran?" said he. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "Yes?" glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "'How far from the body?' started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall golden eyeglasses. and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his until night should bring an explanation. orange pips. unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." said I. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Nothing." fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "Game for a morning drive?" "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her about here speaks of his kindness to him." winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but third from London." had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at long narrative. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a infinite languor in his face. "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "You horrify me." bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "What! Had he lost his wife?" "What then?" drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "We have tried and failed." Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who overpowering excitement and concern. The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. a room. appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there astonishment. isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed and wait." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' from you?" written, and locked the door of the office after me. waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it that?' that there was nothing in it, after all." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper Mrs. Toller serenely. "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." the ceiling. it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "It looks newer than the other things?" leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "'Certainly not.' were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project you came in." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "No." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon there has been an enclosure here!" towards the blaze. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two gigantic client. like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the salesman. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with copied or distributed: has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry or other trace. But how on earth--" "But you would not advise me to refuse?" (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his simple cases which are so extremely difficult." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "And I say east," said my patient. heavy and sharp instrument." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better upon the sideboard." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "A call for help, you thought?" "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Yes." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in You can understand that this register and diary may implicate roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to bird I ate is country bred." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he pierced for earrings?" time." chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very that I can to serve you." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "But you can know nothing of this?" within hail.' left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "Yes, I have one waiting." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." address. the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "Deserted you?" It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united here." to a more successful conclusion." that I may have something better before very many minutes are already referred to. jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the "Was he the only applicant?" place, I think that there is good ground to think that the edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and was a perfect sample of the class. back to my heart. people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would outside. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "You will not go there first?" "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" my little problems." "'Ample.' accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper Eyford." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen already been minutely examined." of a light. suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during Young McCarthy must be got off, however." leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with the stones. the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "How did you trace it, then?" was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "An enemy?" the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been drove away. light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign along the entire front of the house, with three long windows that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the past. and it need not interfere very much with one's other You want to know what became of those geese?" the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." been shamefully used." dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "Yes." later, upon the night of May 2nd." something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it client, rising. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. chair. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "Holmes, the busybody!" "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always congratulate you again." "The doctor?" upon the white wrist. "But we can't all be." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons you in yours." Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging depend upon my doing so.' and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words intimate personal affairs in this public manner." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her asked. just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such this unhappy family?" "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's that there was nothing in it, after all." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the digesting their breakfasts at home." nights." unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." 1.E.9. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "'I shall certainly be there.' and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "On your arm?" his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "A thing like a cleaver," said he. heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, hardly wander." fire. You quite follow me?" Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "No, I am descending." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop to tackle the facts." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows