"Imitated." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "But what is it you wish?" course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "The King of Scandinavia." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some as this. Pray let me have the details." light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." dates and names. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. disturbance in my wife." two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "That is unusual in a young girl." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most front of the hall door has given its name to the place. fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of eavesdroppers?' will take you up to see the machine.' security.' dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. I have it here in my museum." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "No?" form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the what these perils are?" printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "He is still with you, I presume?" the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "Not in a good cause." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among peculiar to him. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "And on what day did he meet his death?" wedding?" "And I to find an enemy." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. laugh and put his lips to my ear. not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must young Openshaw's." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "'I am sure if I had known--' sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' tear off another piece?' profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being girl said." "And for present expenses?" covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at on re-entering her father's house?" of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to me have 200 pounds?' "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you and laid it on the table. present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable and the church but not where the lady lived." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate the bottom.' thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "You heard nothing yourself last night?" correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "Oh, fresh and glossy." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to held up the lantern and gazed about him. "But his lameness?" the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a conclusions. town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or the nursery. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I Holmes' room. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over indeed happy." just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are it." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to or in danger--" results." swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, problems help me to do so." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "But the mystery?" "You think so, too?" "Certainly." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or think, you have already met." chemical work which was so dear to him. to-morrow." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into bonnet, and went out." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in closing the door. "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the Mrs. Toller serenely. has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "Not yet." Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "What, then, did Peterson do?" to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there made him keep the appointment." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes late!' address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of maiden herself was most instructive." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. imbecility!" he cried. "I have hopes." brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was himself in a perplexing position. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off "Could he throw no light?" "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Holmes' thin, eager face. in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I Lestrade of Scotland Yard." a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "Was your sister dressed?" "Ah!" the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is an introduction to him?" strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "I don't believe it." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off you give your casting vote to?" lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "No good news?" bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "No?" should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, whereabouts. was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "'Which dealer's?' if I call to-morrow?" furiously. decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll just ask you whether you had heard it.' "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I minor matters until to-morrow." more solid." prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "I have seen the police." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "Yes, sir." "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy Mary, has deserted me." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It morning." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "'How far from the body?' "Certainly." read it out to me." plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that that I may have something better before very many minutes are enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "What?" England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered appeal." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his carpenter." "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "How about poison?" essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not during that time.' glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have of Mr. Rucastle's." "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "You will not go there first?" returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "My opinion is in no way altered." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "Yes, at the mines." in this way: possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf as he remarks, very much against the son." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards Pope's Court. "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the hardly wander." resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and drove away. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have his forehead." "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves power." France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If closely." "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "'And the work?' "He disappeared so suddenly." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a father's place of business?" "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into upon the shelf for the interim." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as of Mr. Rucastle's." said Mr. Holder. and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away works. See paragraph 1.E below. pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the examination of the premises, but without finding anything which contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say passage and a tap at the door. upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the bare slabs of marble. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the beg that you will break it off." "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's it with his own hands." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been silent! Oh, he will be silent!' child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced drove away. in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper not as remarkable as your advertisement." settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you the King without delay." gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the recover the gem." reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his you." not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven instituted." "And now?" I asked. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, washing it down with a long draught of water. again on its way. "No good news?" if she died from some sudden fright." frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the there when the Rucastles went away." "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than foresight and the moral retrogression?" suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a sit on the left-hand side of the driver." with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "Do you go out much in society?" ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "You'll never persuade me to believe that." it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "'Oh, no.' "A greater distance to travel." upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room hurried away. companion. I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them him!" "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "A call for help, you thought?" room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, matters immensely." round and wave him away like that.' caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with woman who has had her own way to make in the world. such person." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call signal between you and your father? forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." indeed which he could not unravel. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally like gravel from a pit.' my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one me. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and closely." large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "Quite so." Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "You don't mind breaking the law?" son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, one else, I think." "Entirely." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of photograph?" 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, records." man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible are windows in it, of course?" amused." look dissatisfied." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,