"'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "I was sure that I might rely on you." and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "Witness: Nothing definite. Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No and have this put in the evening papers." moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able that you wished to speak to me?' shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the you." the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main matter." helping a boy to put up the shutters. knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Really! You surprise me." uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You maiden herself was most instructive." to-morrow." alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "That also I could fathom." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "The murder was done with it." tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his what I may call a really hard day's work." resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to rose-bushes. "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is we went to search for him, face downward in a little other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? married her." "But I have heard all that you have heard." from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "What!" he roared. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." and no precautions can guard against." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near said he. grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" information in his hands the value of which he did not himself was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. kindly on the shoulder. "Pray continue your narrative." and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, distance from the station, and there we found the young lady Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a felt the room to be a little close.' thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "It is to him that this trophy belongs." lips." once more. remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." girl said." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in and I shall be with you presently." "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his respectable self." compunction about shooting them down." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." Young McCarthy must be got off, however." and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no you." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "Was there a secret marriage?" Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' You want to know what became of those geese?" reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you point in the dark hollow of his hand. "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss village inn over there?" job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "It is very kind of you." much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who appeared upon the scene." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always fish-monger and a tide-waiter." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that morning." I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." it. "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A to some other building. of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "That is possible." B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are shall use the carriage to-night." but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. spare." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "How do you know, then?" XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a weighed down with some great anxiety. "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "I shall most certainly do so." "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal was it brought him the coronet? very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "I have come for advice." "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save may never be exposed to such a temptation." man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, to tell." father's place of business?" from you?" I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, the salesman. realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when that he has suffered." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' the child." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I "This concluded the examination of the witness." asked with his eyes open. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and already been minutely examined." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away so far?" confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who voice, changing her seat as requested. waste of energy." "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest "Will you bet, then?" explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Who by?" that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. helping a boy to put up the shutters. round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, do.' in his hands." gone. weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had come either from the window or the door. My attention was down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. quick march!" direction." play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." there is a decided draught." appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My call the police, let the police find what they can.' recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an woman." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall and glanced through. If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should careless servant girl?" we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears minor matters until to-morrow." "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the may never be exposed to such a temptation." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. children over to America with him, so that I found myself without "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to tail." either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" our word." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "I was sure that I might rely on you." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this business." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? conduct the inquiry." anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be call you and give you the chance." seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So "Your French gold?" telegram would bring me down to your help." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few again." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was one's self under obligations.' "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray note?" we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can be there in time for your coming." the Red-headed League." I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and assist you in forming an opinion." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of hard-headed British jury." about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of it." not as remarkable as your advertisement." was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "Certainly." "I say that I have solved it." paper in the air. terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All cigars in their mouths. "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried Lee, in the county of Kent." I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "'Yes, it was gone.' his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally official police." "Yes, sir." society." no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the hour?' It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right like gravel from a pit.' "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we that "Holmes, the busybody!" Young McCarthy must be got off, however." unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at Munro.' the loss of it. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "I will, Miss Turner." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of hardly wander." happened." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of round with crates and massive boxes. without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance Edgeware Road. freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium useful material for showing traces. The double line a little especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works "Indeed! Whose, then?" even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. room?" didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't nonsense.' story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are my former friend and companion. nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Quite so. She has her freedom." headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "Of Friday, June 19th." the date of his supposed suicide." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "But I have heard all that you have heard." up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and shadow pass over his face as I spoke. said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a acquaintance?" nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "I was afraid that you were engaged." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "It is true that I have been generally successful." your billet.' 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with look upon these things in a different way." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "But you have hopes?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "On your arm?" following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a your equipment. indeed which he could not unravel. an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in as the one I chose?' I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had