both be extremely obliged.' She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "But I have heard all that you have heard." "It was." assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better in a friendly supper." stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of just called myself is not exactly my own." until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "'Where to?' License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this appointment with me for six o'clock?" heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." lamp. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "My opinion is in no way altered." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping shoulder; "he's all right." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom hard-headed British jury." should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no guilty one." adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the formed some opinion?" which was all perfectly true. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill Lee, in the county of Kent." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and to-morrow." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second the dangers which encompass me." strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be waste of energy." zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "What then?" be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "You don't mind breaking the law?" "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such retorted upon me, and I on you." "Who by?" the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, Holmes. upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "My dear Holmes!" very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a be.' "Yes, sir." "No, but the enclosure is." which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the away into the river." business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact directors, with the result that you have seen." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a and looked back. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of Literary Archive Foundation had this final quarrel? "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, asked. see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter an introduction to him?" Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did key of the affair now." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for room. on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "What have you to say now?" "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' redistribution. eavesdroppers?' reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which "No." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." Lee, in the county of Kent." waste of energy." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. young Openshaw's." so.' "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "I guessed as much." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "What can you not understand?" 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable drove away. The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be present." both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "'And the work?' hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was colonel looking down at me. near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a retorted upon me, and I on you." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he "Here?" are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest absolutely follow my advice in every respect." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were and wait." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "'Where could I find him?' "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the once more. really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step empty. "And is that all?" began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" sufficient punishment." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the forecastle of an emigrant ship. "I answered that I had not. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he American. Then who could this American be, and why should he pictures, libraries, or plate. read over the extraordinary announcement. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "Well, it is a possible supposition." of the way of danger. that "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "And how have you succeeded?" "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he subject to the trademark license, especially commercial posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "You know me, then?" their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Then I shall certainly come." "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "I was mad--insane." France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very hard-headed British jury." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "A call for help, you thought?" to change my dress. I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "What, then, did Peterson do?" "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "It is possible." "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "'Ample.' fuss that is made over them." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you residence of the great financier. Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. politicians who had been sent down from the North. of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "You will not go there first?" dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some at my own good fortune. varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "Yes, sir." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, crowd. "What I expected to see." double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, heavy and sharp instrument." turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the During two years I have had three consultations and one small WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly is entirely a question of barometric pressure." remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "I have seen the police." acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "Texas, I think." new duties?' "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "Thank you. And your address?" "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and woman who has had her own way to make in the world. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "And leave your case unfinished?" "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "I will do it." pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg too. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "My stepfather's business papers." "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a wedding?" to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall enter Dr. Roylott's room." of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back never to learn it at all." considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he conceal it?" send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or From what you have told me I think that it is possible that Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." you?" "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old hopeless attempt at recovering them." "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, it were putty." cup of tea. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "By no means." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that I am not easy in my mind about them." and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She some water from a caraffe. more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the come either from the window or the door. My attention was It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "She will not sell." her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely to-night?" I asked. "Yes, at the mines." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so page at http://pglaf.org on in his house." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America and capable of preserving a secret.' am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" in my life." play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "One of the highest in England." railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a occupations.' "Stolen." of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a writer." but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "What have you to say now?" "Not him." to miss it." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a Edgeware Road. and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "Then the page we have seen--" distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my approach us with offers to donate. be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "We must sit without light. He would see it through the journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "Here?" my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would future lives." my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "Quite so. She has her freedom." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker must compliment you." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New the roots. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out to me. bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the ordinary clothes on?" the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was his huge brown hands. rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain hereditary King of Bohemia." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, became a certainty. is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net present." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "So I heard. You have him here?" "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "You heard nothing yourself last night?" him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Was your sister dressed?" devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Very. But will he see it?" ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "Which are?" examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "Very much so." smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "My last client of the sort was a king." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "By no means." step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "I am sure." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat The events in question occurred in the early days of my "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated