work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the depend upon my doing so.' just called myself is not exactly my own." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "And your father? Did you tell him?" livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first it were putty." upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic his eyes and forehead. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "That is unusual in a young girl." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have did not hear it also.' remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left even so self-evident a thing as that." the Red-headed League." "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at Watson," he said cordially. "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but man. into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such developed." unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out presume?" it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the could not account in any way for the presence of the missing very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "From his hat?" "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "Dr. Becher's." reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my could not account in any way for the presence of the missing absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "I do." going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "A call for help, you thought?" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes Project Gutenberg-tm works. butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an Leave Paddington by the 11:15." the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. morning." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, with some details as to your case." transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the and all of them with the keenest interest. examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Foundation did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "The gentleman I describe." as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "What steps will you take?" I asked. during which he might have communicated with his friend the "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who a monotonous occupation." and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the over with notes and figures. the stones. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of matter." "The best possible." eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that light and attacked it." We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness upon the white wrist. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast the child." The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a assist you in forming an opinion." 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that the child." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. know that the truth is known." the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were to-night?' "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to hopeless attempt at recovering them." "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his subject to the trademark license, especially commercial you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these to-night?" I asked. "Of what day?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "Breckinridge is his name." as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "My own seal." "That sounds a little paradoxical." "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you Young McCarthy must be got off, however." been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the mystery." blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated where she found matters as described by the last witness. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "Nearly eleven." when your master had gone out." "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." tension within him. the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking awkward doing business with an alias." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "I would pay ten." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "My last client of the sort was a king." full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door dead, shall be safe with us." "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "'Which dealer's?' "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her mystery!" interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "And how did he make his money?" introspective fashion. "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly Holmes' thin, eager face. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, tightly behind him. her also." other lovers by making love himself." It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Very much so." of the efforts of the United States government and of the better is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "'In my own bureau.' until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, the stones. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "She will not sell." return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "Why? What do you mean?" morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "Certainly." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of fishes. characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I him!" call for protection in the marriage market, for the present which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm felt?" away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see someone who had been in Australia." was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "Yes, certainly." was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your the loss of it. of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does crowd. though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you swore that no one else had been in the front room during the analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them that you saw all that I did." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, gone before you can get him to hospital." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" society." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." begin with, and I had not got mine yet." that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish me. the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "When did she vanish, then?" interest. They are important, you understand, without being ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into delirious. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "Yes." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "'Very good.' wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "Not him." step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would the inner apartment." in darkness. dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was because she had spent so short a time in this country that she all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two cigar and let me expound." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "What is it?" face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." locked. think that he is innocent?" had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "We were both in the photograph." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with "In San Francisco, a year ago." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, forebodings. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at "Indeed! Whose, then?" pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that do you make of it all?" days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she back alive. window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered made him keep the appointment." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter cigar and let me expound." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "I would pay ten." male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to flock.' that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private straightened it out again. plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" Foundation exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the several quiet little villages up there." sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "And did you observe any change in her then?" him, that man would not have given me such complete information typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. Miss Holder?" bled considerably." January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study,