narrative." investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "Always." groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the prepare for the new role I have to play." known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "I have hopes." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. brain must have something in it." beg that you will break it off." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was late!' and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of as the one I chose?' not within a twentieth part of the market price." villagers almost as much as their master. Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "I saw her in conversation with her maid." scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "Just look it up, then." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to me. You must get home instantly and act." silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." it." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would and have this put in the evening papers." door?" inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to absolutely follow my advice in every respect." hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she lips." noble correspondent could be. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "How are you getting on?" matter over." sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "That is unusual in a young girl." Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such that I am arrested." the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. dates and names. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one useful material for showing traces. The double line a little stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "Seven!" I answered. years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "And did you observe any change in her then?" pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. it." age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Look there!" said he. three fields round his house, and there he would take his the best of training." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "You did not overhear what they said?" going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "But his left-handedness." even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a been." fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the heavy and sharp instrument." little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "Then the page we have seen--" the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? you." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in Mary, has deserted me." beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was call you and give you the chance." serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will trifles." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have happened." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "No, I had a dozen." ago." a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my clang of the bell. horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in man. "What! You do not mean bodies?" cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended any more." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my particular state visit http://pglaf.org down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to outside. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need of note-paper. It read in this fashion: reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." waste of energy." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the my friend's incisive reasoning. "I shall most certainly do so." brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies shall use the carriage to-night." "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Holmes' room. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "In heaven's name, what for?" glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "Ten will be early enough." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is mystery may be cleared along those lines." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a your equipment. was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual grasp, he hurried from the room. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "'I have heard so.' enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" girl said." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "Stolen, then." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "9th. McCauley cleared. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with chambers. wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. tension within him. matter over." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was once more on the important position which you have been fortunate side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the again on its way. during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a you do it in twenty minutes!' breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is Foundation follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can begun to whiten, even as mine has." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "Why? What do you mean?" one of the states of the Union." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "'Yes, it was gone.' narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, desk. daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "Then what has happened to him?" with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look Gutenberg-tm License. "You'll never persuade me to believe that." certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "Well, it is a possible supposition." that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. I think that I could be of assistance to you." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit bird I ate is country bred." "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" III. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's American. Then who could this American be, and why should he anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by in one or two places in England?' breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, four million human beings all jostling each other within the considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "But how did you gain them?" the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "Why did you beat the pavement?" infinite languor in his face. the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "Pray do so." through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as You want to know what became of those geese?" giving me time to thank him. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "'There is a drive, then?' our word." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "How are you getting on?" strength of mind to control. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, discontent upon his features. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you himself. newspaper selections." bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event strength." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise in the dead of the night?' by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "What have you to say now?" day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that morning." "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk point in the dark hollow of his hand. condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "Never." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." business." could go. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "I don't say that. Perhaps." gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "Then I am your man." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." of the vacancies.' "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "Just look it up, then." acted in my house last night?" rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "Well, it is a possible supposition." family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "We have tried and failed." over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "We have tried and failed." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, status with the IRS. "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' him!" The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. delighted to hear it," he said. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "We must sit without light. He would see it through the be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "That is it on the dressing-table." generous with you in money matters.' and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in Surrey." narrative." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not that, and I came down." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly your troubles." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I are, I think, all that we need." return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go Count Von Kramm." common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you Dr. Gregory B. Newby "What are they?" "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "Your French gold?" appeared upon the scene." sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, helping a boy to put up the shutters. there!' you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the later, upon the night of May 2nd." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "And how did you find out?"