reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my touch that coronet?' Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks a little more before I quite committed myself. unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "So it appears." "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "No, I am descending." very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his answered with a sidelong glance. customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for 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." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the your billet.' search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it vault. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance them present such singular features as the strange train of "I guessed as much." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do were unconscious?" opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he yourselves in at night?" dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt next day. the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but round and wave him away like that.' "Certainly, madam." "When did it break out?" "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this not as remarkable as your advertisement." "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea detective. Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure lost nothing by them." I leave." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case you for a few hours?" papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "Not particularly." wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew round and wave him away like that.' dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out page at http://pglaf.org with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "No." carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My It was close upon four before the door opened, and a insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and awaited us upon the table. against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his Foundation and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" Holmes." man. "I was mad--insane." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are The King stared at him in amazement. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at pity, because in other respects you would really have done very envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. desk. have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own to a more successful conclusion." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "But how?" he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was to Leatherhead. He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands was a lad." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have himself. o'clock is it?" him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the upon the white wrist. and I shall be with you presently." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "What is it, then--a fire?" drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "Yes." "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but father's place of business?" This is what he says: much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old quick march!" business in the City. She little knew what. "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "No, thank goodness, she did not." "Always." PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "If I can be of use." hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "'You doubt its value?' he asked. explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to closing the door. "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the details." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a His smile broadened. be. At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and "'And what are they worth?' I asked. signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "That is unusual in a young girl." informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "Where, indeed?" "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "No." sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "How can you tell that?" the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. that you saw all that I did." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been never came back." 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "'Yes, sir.' have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before the morning and make my own way in the world.' box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "Quite so. She has her freedom." other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "You horrify me!" "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do time." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "But not more so than I to find you." his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and that he has suffered." about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused I shall continue with my miserable story. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "Always." servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Of what day?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "At the wedding breakfast." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "How did you deduce the select?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will one of them." logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "Ten will be early enough." "Tired-looking or fresh?" himself. The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "My own seal." Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' jewels which you have stolen?' "He slept on the premises." "And leave your case unfinished?" we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "To an English lawyer named Norton." of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "'I shall certainly be there.' Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of not within a twentieth part of the market price." will be renamed. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was society." over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque have an American origin." it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could Mrs. Toller serenely. "Will you go?" observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. outsides of the windows. and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a October 9, 1890. things are very often connected not with the larger but with the envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the be. however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "So I am. Very much so." mystery." society." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "But what is it you wish?" be best to do. closing the door. imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this never will be, entirely cleared up. have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" Again Holmes raved in the air. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of disturbance in my wife." about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely chamber." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally quick march!" that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If the very letters. But what is this written above them?' touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by perplexity from it to my illustrious client. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am been." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he it with his own hands." "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't go--none." Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of away in different directions, and I went off to make my own liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in is four-and-twenty." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain went to the Alpha were town bred." harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "'Yes, it was gone.' grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought feature." He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my in my life." disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw useful material for showing traces. The double line a little stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His them, and came down just as you departed. all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old the roots. wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our Where does the thing come from?' though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The rose-bushes. manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my the salesman. the night.' "What shall I do?" "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "The knees of his trousers." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that the coronet in his hand?" "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I spare." "Then you may entirely rely on me." panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." absorbing." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" thin legs towards the fire. buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating upon an income of about 60 pounds." as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to The King stared at him in amazement. Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And such attractions and accomplishments?' "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I writer." accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my constraint." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need constraint." entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then "Yes, certainly." 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "You are all wrong." "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a security.' once more to my work. there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was this man was intellectual?" himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my crowd. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "And leave your case unfinished?" the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it will be renamed. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a