considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." his face which made him a very different person to the round, permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "No." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "What! a murderous attack?" It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper you want, then?' "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen photograph a cabinet?" attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "'Which dealer's?' arrangements." I shall communicate with you." that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a started for the Temple to see my husband. my friend's incisive reasoning. fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found o'clock is it?" "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing lids now and glanced across at his visitor. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "'Stolen!' he cried. woman." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he danger is over." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you my little problems." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of back into the street. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what bill, which interests me deeply." "Ten will be early enough." young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always companion imperturbably. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with crime." strode off upon his way. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "'Certainly not. But why?' so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst *** START: FULL LICENSE *** play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered little adventures." arrested. You then--" third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "It was." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I hand, madam?" "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said What do you deduce from it?" Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should will take you up to see the machine.' to tell." train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The during the last few years, and there are many noble families to will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "How are you getting on?" Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "That is possible." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen keep the flames under. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "A thing like a cleaver," said he. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At that before taking the final step I should like to submit the "And help." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled the one as in the other." fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Yes." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us Miss Holder?" distance from the station, and there we found the young lady this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of the address that was given us in the advertisement. method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, over his head with a sweet womanly caress. than was visible to me." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned because she had spent so short a time in this country that she part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this were wasted." to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up but preventing her from injuring another. that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out this as likely?" the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which disappearance of these gems?" and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "By all means." direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or the south-west, I see." conversation I have gathered that they have been married about time." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "Pray tell us what has happened to you." I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "'Yes, I promise.' I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains records." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "He is still with you, I presume?" "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been when you have done it." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which your most interesting statement." compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray hair?' morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to go from here to the Strand." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently affection." to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "No, I am descending." "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "'What, the red-headed man?' humiliation." naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, outside. is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "Yes, there are nearly always some there." unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT was once confined in the cab my mission was practically case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "And you can do nothing until then?" I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Is he quiet?" that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and fled together." retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see details." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram been deceived." train.' "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of with frightened eyes at his accuser. 11:15.' Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the III. What do you deduce from it?" he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no attention." six. Come in!" "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "By train from Waterloo." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite certainly do as you advise." "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than ceremony." the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still fled together." correct than the official force." It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "That's no good." although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "'Why that?' I asks. them?" opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "Then, as to money?" "What, then, did Peterson do?" really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "Nothing." I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and giving me time to thank him. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, later, upon the night of May 2nd." of Mr. Rucastle's." later, upon the night of May 2nd." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. locked." following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "I am sure." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, some city in a dream. Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a your Highness to the police-station?" story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "But you have hopes?" unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went your equipment. with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to presented more singular features than that which was associated quickly through a disagreeable task. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" was feeling which was the fattest.' gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have you." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must fire. You quite follow me?" down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy chair. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end present." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been man. foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "Yes." letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest followed. arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been likely to be some crony of the landlady's." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "How are you getting on?" serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "None. Neville wrote those words." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "May I see it?" however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "Bought." little trying to do so much typewriting?" I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a emerged. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Certainly." butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great even so self-evident a thing as that." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. which our visitor detailed to us. mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "This photograph!" Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though the nursery. He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one I approached. Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you fat-encircled eyes. than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. your own bird, so if you wish--" Does that suggest anything?" was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "'Yes, sir.' whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "Where is it, then?" "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. mystery!" "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is comes from the middle window." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has had this final quarrel? I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting least a fellow-countryman. "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "The doctor?" desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed what these perils are?" really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "Very truly yours, "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his security.' "But you have hopes?" what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very that I am arrested." main points of my analysis." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock any more." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "The Cedars?" "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "What of the rat, then?" possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it