as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been asked. certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. said he at last. freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of three fields round his house, and there he would take his from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for troubles have been weighing upon his mind. public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining train.' broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and sooner or later she must fall a victim. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. occupations.' "Upon what point?" "Thank you. Pray proceed." stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "No." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as in this note: tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "What then?" by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known Holmes' room. tell me that you intended to go into harness." waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few felt?" "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' never will be, entirely cleared up. smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "He disappeared so suddenly." a suggestive one." vague figure huddled up in the darkness. grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at "She showed me, as I told you she would." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "But how?" surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival crackling voice. The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and "Pray be precise as to details," said he. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into murdered man." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "'Ten to two.' not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the new duties?' posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of this unhappy family?" in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "What will you do, then?" to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat have I gained?" course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond Surrey." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can tension within him. entirely lost his self-respect." Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, or in danger--" professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Yes." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "Yes." without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would promised to bring home. he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "And I say east," said my patient. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize 1.E.9. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he back alive. liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "I shall most certainly do so." weapon." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." Pool. my room." "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses make me his representative both with the servants and with the outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from read over the extraordinary announcement. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we again, where I was soon asleep. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told that, and I came down." walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. The telegram which we eventually received came late one night of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "The knees of his trousers." the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. place of silver." Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away pierced for earrings?" at my own good fortune. fled together." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan wife's character?" "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. I took the paper from him and read as follows: surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have experiences." Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were disappearance of these gems?" answer." weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and outsides of the windows. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "And Irene Adler?" THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the south, for the country is more deserted there." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, she might be summoned. it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy relief. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was I nodded again. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend when your master had gone out." learned something! Where are the gems?" "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to quick march!" moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are lids now and glanced across at his visitor. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old the window, rose as we entered. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one III. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and digesting their breakfasts at home." less than 26s. 4d. compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "Absolutely none." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been and I shall be with you presently." surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the get her out of the way." "Entirely." "I am still in the dark." away in different directions, and I went off to make my own the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about Holmes' face clouded over. "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. locked. "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And way: upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "But how did you gain them?" "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously and it need not interfere very much with one's other of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "There is the writing." it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back the nursery. child?' Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "And on what day did he meet his death?" "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid upon the white wrist. "Precisely." schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent burst out into a roar of laughter. whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business shoulder; "he's all right." of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, shoulder; "he's all right." "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are giving me time to thank him. electronic works gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "Very well, sir. And this stone?" quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, 1.F. never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "'Not at all. I only doubt--' stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in your most interesting statement." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "The Coroner: What do you mean? His smile broadened. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a said he. a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of populous neighbourhood." that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as events than those which have happened in my own family." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue derbies." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "If I can be of use." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this the dangers which encompass me." the stones. suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our distance from the station, and there we found the young lady I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of fait accompli?" "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." stepfather?" are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have time." quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "Yes, certainly." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "'Stolen!' he cried. got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "The King of Scandinavia." "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "He is dead," cried several voices. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "I think it very unlikely." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly empty. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock good for you to do.' course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've sake, don't!" would apply.' in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at gone before you can get him to hospital." "'No, I know no one in these parts.' always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss Pope's Court, Fleet Street." past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange from you?" he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She sound at heart." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The bird I ate is country bred." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a dead, shall be safe with us." "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "'What, the red-headed man?' "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "I am to be neutral?" waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." affection." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about there has been an enclosure here!" "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of and looked back. urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to cigar and let me expound." and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down was shining brightly. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that recover the gem." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Yes, it would be as well." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "'Certainly,' I answered.