you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" one or two very singular points about this room. For example, jewels which you have stolen?' papers diligently of late, have you not?" purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall sufficient punishment." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "And how did you verify them?" main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" hereditary King of Bohemia." shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. you in your example." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "By train from Waterloo." some place of shelter and let the county police know what has newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can call it cruel." "It is half-past ten now." was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's carriage. It was a chestnut." With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when "Seven!" I answered. father's young wife. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out walking." outside." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. "Yes, he did." concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, retorted upon me, and I on you." these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time so far?" "No." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her sooner or later she must fall a victim. "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "No, distinctly professional." "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America recover the gem." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are the stones. highroad, where all traces were lost. surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a nights." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "Will you bet, then?" to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "She walked into the breakfast-room." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black question. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something introspective fashion. lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase yards of it?' idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the nights." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "I think that I had better go, Holmes." emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I considering the formidable letters which were received by himself this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: compunction about shooting them down." "I warn you that they are very incomplete." One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "By no means." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and your sleep?' "You are hungry," I remarked. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "Yes, all." the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders directly by questioning you." became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "What then?" would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I awaited us upon the table. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, been shamefully used." certainly do as you advise." that he will be back before evening." "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "But his lameness?" incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that recover the gem." know that the truth is known." "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these me upon any point which I do not make clear." "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "'Then let me do so?' therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' hour?' pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen best detective that ever lived. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "And how in the world did you find them?" your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking nothing of it?" out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "So it appears." "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "That sounds a little paradoxical." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to know that the truth is known." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of she might be summoned. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is Holmes' face clouded over. "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in call the police, let the police find what they can.' blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an woven round him. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." be.' uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "What!" he roared. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned from you?" their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it exactly what you advise." it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." were unconscious?" never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, to have that photograph." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "He is still with you, I presume?" is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major see me here to avoid scandal." you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a good for you to do.' "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." you want, then?' Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his hard-headed British jury." threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." other, as fresh and trim as possible. "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "Well, some hundreds of times." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "Never to return." Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in bears upon the case?" understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most when you have done it." 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere you, my dear young lady?' charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "At what time?" all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" vanished into the darkness. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "Deserted you?" Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "He said that you could solve anything." "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "Witness: I must still refuse. dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking himself in a perplexing position. promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, at a side door. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined second window is the one that I jumped from." crime." "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up because she had spent so short a time in this country that she examination of the premises, but without finding anything which slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away this man was intellectual?" defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "And it is--" pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at and the whole place is in a blaze." "Yes." held up the lantern and gazed about him. Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at Again Holmes raved in the air. "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "I shall be delighted." job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will your only hope of safety." than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and photograph a cabinet?" The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "Dark enough and sinister enough." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He him nearly every evening." violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It to Leatherhead. son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to in. States. handed it to him. to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, already been minutely examined." examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this himself in a perplexing position. for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the even of instruction." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the present." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "Never." "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did the ceiling. may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project on in his house." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "Yes, but only for you and me." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "But how?" spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the were new raised from a basin. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed conversation I have gathered that they have been married about this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "But how will you look?" I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Could he throw no light?" should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "Pray do so." You want to know what became of those geese?" "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed constraint." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "The vanishing of the lady." him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my when your master had gone out." begun to whiten, even as mine has." they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, presume?" reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story with you alone." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the since then to throw any light upon what became of him." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "'How far from the body?' seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "In San Francisco, a year ago." initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner you, my dear young lady?' about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "But not more so than I to find you." lips." "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not experiences." companion imperturbably. Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was whether it answered to the description of any of their "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at likely to be some crony of the landlady's." Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and subject to the trademark license, especially commercial I took the paper from him and read as follows: forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss I nodded to show that I had heard. "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted shadow pass over his face as I spoke. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "I was mad--insane." cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered that before taking the final step I should like to submit the dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at purpose of examination. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you the very morning of the wedding." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had where she found matters as described by the last witness. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: some mystery and the punishment of some crime." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "By train from Waterloo." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "And you don't know his address?" together. most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and seen the man in the road." to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "And how in the world did you find them?"