family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "If so, much may have happened between." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "It was a confession," I ejaculated. And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I hopeless attempt at recovering them." "'Yes, sir.' pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "And Irene Adler?" her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Very well, sir. And this stone?" wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "Yes." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "'Where to?' to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert it? Did I buy the geese off you?" her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "'And the work?' 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular speckled band?" "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my light and attacked it." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. few hundred pounds.' which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his and the colonel ushered me in. believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, this unhappy family?" ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "I am about to be married." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of sneer upon his pale face. what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "I know where it is." at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and presume?" took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it and wait." late." little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "I would pay ten." "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent Doctor, of the paper and the date." minor matters until to-morrow." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been until night should bring an explanation. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "How did that help you?" searched, without anything being found which could incriminate from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite ventilator." note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many business?" "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears of a light. tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. constraint." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, views." suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I crime. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "Then what has happened to him?" firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I back alive. "Holmes, the busybody!" rat could hardly pass through." human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "But how did you gain them?" think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about approach us with offers to donate. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "Pray let us have it, for all that." not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "What is it?" "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "Yesterday." Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded the one as in the other." his huge brown hands. "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, upon the white wrist. for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every works. connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "Will you go?" "What?" public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy to his chemical studies. vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to kind enough to tell me what I should do." and looked back. him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "What is it, then--a fire?" "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able here and I will read it to you: opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" me have 200 pounds?' of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "'Where could I find him?' "How did he come?" Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "But she will refuse." have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a and laid it on the table. town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "Witness: Nothing definite. impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge promised to bring home. certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I Henry Baker is a member." thought that she would have been so carried away." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "I fear not." calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to people don't know." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his persecution?" kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "Yes." lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "When did she vanish, then?" too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness presume?" poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical prisoner's face. "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Yes, only one." For additional contact information: Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "Nothing?" have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who conclusions. lips." "Of what?" against a man in the prime of life?" work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in unkempt, staring out at me. just ask you whether you had heard it.' in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable that there was nothing in it, after all." "I don't say that. Perhaps." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, very morning of my second wedding." "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, photograph?" shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your had died away into the silence from which it rose. "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Very much so." run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than matter over." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "Yes, certainly." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked to have been novel and of interest." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge detective. where we are going." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "You think that he is dead?" midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found fluttered off among the others. prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she McCarthy." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "You are hungry," I remarked. "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took the salesman. retorted upon me, and I on you." "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" keep the flames under. written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to the coronet in his hands?" back into the street. a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing to some other building. "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An him." "And how?" and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. criminal. We have already had experience of such." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last towards the blaze. your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the strength in the others." my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "And now?" He raised his hand. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "How can you tell that?" upon the sideboard." "How did you trace it, then?" "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. singular points about the case. What did the police think of the 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "Not in the least." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, stepfather?" "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "'Yes, it was gone.' endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted your only hope of safety." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "I think that I had better go, Holmes." man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, individual and becomes the badge of a society." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "Have you her photograph?" answer." Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "A client, then?" long narrative. takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action business." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has do.' each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "'Certainly,' I answered. then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side case before our client came into the room." "I was afraid that you were engaged." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, and looked back. as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, keep the flames under. likely to be some crony of the landlady's." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell against a man in the prime of life?" refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly in his power. learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "It is half-past ten now." when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "If so, much may have happened between." small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you Sutherland. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found presume?" so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "'Yes, sir.' confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked know that the truth is known." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "What steps will you take?" I asked. business in the City. She little knew what. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced business." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "I think that it is very probable." Street. another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a once more on the important position which you have been fortunate