"I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had papers must be those that are destroyed.' "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "Now, then, what's the last entry?" may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "The murder was done with it." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "It is possible." twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads introspective fashion. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "'Most admirably.' providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, so far?" of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the swore that no one else had been in the front room during the affection." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the started for the Temple to see my husband. pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "The landlord of the Alpha." mysterious end." heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the outsides of the windows. said Mr. Holder. paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those threw himself down with his face to the pillow. bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery are, I think, all that we need." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose which our visitor detailed to us. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which of the vacancies.' "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade "What then?" morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a I shall continue with my miserable story. the matter." fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his to where he stood hid behind the curtain. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I legal crime." weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which peculiar to him. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first me. Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite closing the door. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate 11:15.' "How do you know, then?" "My own seal." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "What do you mean?" "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "Eh? What was that?" Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "I promise," said Holmes. that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "I see many objections to any such theory." the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, this remarkable episode. "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the late." large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. orange pips. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "And you thought he was pulled back?" License. You must require such a user to return or perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered meant." warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the see me here to avoid scandal." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon green of the new foliage. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very how narrow had been my escape. the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Do you go out much in society?" exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "Bought." was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "What office?" there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated charge against him will break down." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "I have solved it." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the presented more singular features than that which was associated south, for the country is more deserted there." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not national property. I was determined that the law should have its that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace do." "Has he come with you to-night?" Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great unclasping of his long thin hands. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be bled considerably." this as likely?" as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, one of the states of the Union." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and laugh and put his lips to my ear. as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door who was a member of your goose club." "Absolutely none." "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with unkempt, staring out at me. Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "What can you not understand?" into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are with the outside air!" "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." call for protection in the marriage market, for the present bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my whole matter to your consideration." bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. if I call to-morrow?" saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "I am in hopes that she does." business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the the address that was given us in the advertisement. may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead to have been novel and of interest." confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which murdered man." in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is article?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had rose-bushes. that you can jump it.' "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, rooms." "Was she in good spirits?" I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential business at Coburg Square is serious." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive papers." through." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "Nothing." "My dear Holmes!" "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" wedding?" scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried eat it." "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "Yes, only one." cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "Have you her photograph?" "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight signal between you and your father? baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "That is also quite modern," said the lady. have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "And what did you see?" instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, very morning of my second wedding." chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "Where is it, then?" my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to characteristics, but those are the more obvious." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. she might be summoned. eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more the address that was given us in the advertisement. lamp in his hand. "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock over here." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small with frightened eyes at his accuser. autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause careless servant girl?" the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret Street. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's the matter." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built spark where all is dark to me." tightly behind him. and looked back. "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So despair." God! What an exposure! What can I do?" say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: Holmes' thin, eager face. "Holmes, the busybody!" by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "'Yes, it was gone.' singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all discontent upon his features. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "What are they?" face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have wife's character?" call for it in person on Monday morning.' most interesting one." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "That was it, sir." running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back threw himself down with his face to the pillow. to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so and have this put in the evening papers." in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the your equipment. would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "And I to find an enemy." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" exactly what you advise." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and his knees, staring into the fire. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "Nothing." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the threw himself down with his face to the pillow. in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! during the last few years, and there are many noble families to and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime McCarthy." "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "Your presence might be invaluable." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his despaired of." "9th. McCauley cleared. words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the as he folded up the epistle. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." him." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "You have the photograph?" back to my heart. "That is it on the dressing-table." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "I cannot tell." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "How did you deduce the select?" test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless most interesting one." has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind sooner or later she must fall a victim. "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "And that is--" "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "Why, it's a dummy," said he. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "Witness: Nothing definite. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your vault. outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and situation." certainly not very gracious." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, was used.' It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have he died? gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he touch that coronet?' "Not him." coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had