brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "I am all attention, madam." ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was upon the shelf for the interim." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. and files of the old papers, following the future career of every were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "ARAT," I read. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "Precisely so. But how--" confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "I have my revolver," said I. bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced the Assizes." call the police, let the police find what they can.' and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot that the gas is not laid on in his house?" and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the I was concerned in it." License. You must require such a user to return or "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking a suggestive one." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one writers could invent nothing more crude." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that pressing in one house as in another. pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "Stoke Moran?" said he. Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." you give your casting vote to?" it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features place of silver." "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My DAMAGE. to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be politicians who had been sent down from the North. "A thing like a cleaver," said he. that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." not as remarkable as your advertisement." Stoke Moran." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "None. Neville wrote those words." Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "'I have already given you my word.' "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that God! What an exposure! What can I do?" wedding?" "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "I would give my fortune to have them back." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "Why? What do you mean?" "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. will be renamed. morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was little trying to do so much typewriting?" note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that the iron safe, which he closed upon it. fashion which was peculiar to him. least a fellow-countryman. have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "I am to be neutral?" "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I have accepted such a situation. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility should be taken.' doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "Why serious?" prepare for the new role I have to play." brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but other lovers by making love himself." Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you I took the paper from him and read as follows: individual and becomes the badge of a society." Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "It is to him that this trophy belongs." not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in true." know what is wrong with it.' during which he might have communicated with his friend the "No, thank goodness, she did not." there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I right! Sit down and let us talk it over." running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the this Miss Turner." third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, delirious. I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "Ah, but I was recommended to you." seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the test if we have an answer to our advertisement." among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "You have carte blanche." bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then is worth.' "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. followed. against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" one else, I think." coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of British peeress.'" to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be empty. given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all are windows in it, of course?" "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "That is unusual in a young girl." was it brought him the coronet? utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was the child." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg situation." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he spark where all is dark to me." "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest and it need not interfere very much with one's other and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, the dangers which encompass me." "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version could gather together that I was able to avert another public "I say it is." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little the ceiling. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must what these perils are?" all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "Your presence might be invaluable." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached and your relations to her." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled over his head with a sweet womanly caress. vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have and that he would see to anything that turned up. pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been power." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for you?' the Red-headed League." be sorry for having acted so harshly." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "Yes." "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "What then?" I nodded again. nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was friends, not even his own brother. clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise tell them apart.' "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable wife's character?" "What is it, then--a fire?" fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Upon what point?" behind me. every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "I will get her to show me." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the or in danger--" We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, gentleman's clothes. his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "Thank you. Pray proceed." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "I have my revolver," said I. "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. leave you to your papers for a little." "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. The King stared at him in amazement. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET during which he might have communicated with his friend the things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "Two days later this same performance was gone through under mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." compunction about shooting them down." know all about it," he snarled. that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "'It is locked up,' I answered. there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain that you wished to speak to me?' and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it the so-precious time, but come!' "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the developed." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." London for the present?" someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "Come in!" said he. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "I have hopes." however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his one else, I think." bachelor.' "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the photograph a cabinet?" safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "Just look it up, then." "Game for a morning drive?" "Why serious?" "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "Very much so." something of him before." us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she the matter?" "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I obstinate." said I. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried make me his representative both with the servants and with the conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, case before our client came into the room." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "Well?" Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even Edgeware Road. Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "What office?" shadow pass over his face as I spoke. property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. children over to America with him, so that I found myself without brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "She told me to ask you." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, the Red-headed League." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a my secret was safe in his possession. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "To an English lawyer named Norton." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my and files of the old papers, following the future career of every colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking awaited us upon the table. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, notes," he said. smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations the driver. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a is," said he presently: "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "I do." 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: morning." coat-tails." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, at my remark. "You forget that I know nothing about it." telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "'What do you call purely nominal?'