this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Nearly eleven." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "Quite so." "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." meant it for the best. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were "Yes." "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "From his hat?" hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "Nearly eleven." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some union?" coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his you came in." trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." towards the blaze. in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "Yes, all." there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the open." transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital Lestrade of Scotland Yard." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a been deceived." "Murdered?" public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped pity, because in other respects you would really have done very them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I in my life." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Yes?" ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though politicians who had been sent down from the North. Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten works. total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then Miss Holder?" "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco room. "You have compromised yourself seriously." "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that writing, and yet I know it well." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind she used." "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "What, then?" explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you future lives." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' read it out to me." "I cannot think." as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering be.' blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace cup of tea. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill strong and stiff." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the relation between them, and what the object of his repeated address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This giving me time to thank him. do.' metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "Is he quiet?" persecution?" about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "That also I could fathom." need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout there were one or two details which were new to me. But the better in every way that they should make their position a little sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has voice, changing her seat as requested. following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which carriage. It was a chestnut." the date of his supposed suicide." developed." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of leave you to your papers for a little." St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of Sutherland?" Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." papers must be those that are destroyed.' conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" remarked. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, come either from the window or the door. My attention was "Precisely." not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "In what way?" asked Holmes. you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to voice, changing her seat as requested. The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been you." tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "At half-wages, in fact." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very fattened it expressly for you.' believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a beg that you will break it off." latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may tied." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." matter." body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather him." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want the iron safe, which he closed upon it. - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. must be when I saw the door open.' confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "What will you say?" About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "The vanishing of the lady." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "But how will you look?" his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a mysterious end." searched, without anything being found which could incriminate There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "My own seal." "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "Pray continue your narrative." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned see me here to avoid scandal." But Holmes shook his head gravely. "At half-wages, in fact." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings was a lad." I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be be.' trifles." go from here to the Strand." money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable union?" there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "By no means." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "No good news?" probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the their singular warning or token before them when starting upon road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the the house with me." the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" fatally injured? what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "'In my own bureau.' to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their sake, don't!" "We must sit without light. He would see it through the any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would there was no need for father to know." and no precautions can guard against." "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" despair." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a flock.' unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "Yes." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "You have but to name it." "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "Will you go?" "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I society." 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the infinite languor in his face. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope down. perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said silent! Oh, he will be silent!' reach." village inn over there?" a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" 'please.'" naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just to you." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two client, rising. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "And how have you succeeded?" room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES congratulate you again." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "An accident, I presume?" "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect an introduction to him?" "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." the so-precious time, but come!' seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece anything to do with the matter?" villagers almost as much as their master. collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic wedding?" "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I joking. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "Of Friday, June 19th." permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope answer." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "'Tell me all about it,' said I. the Red-headed League." wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "You have compromised yourself seriously." what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "You have a clue?" "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. know all about it," he snarled. overpowering excitement and concern. said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "If I can be of use." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" showing my impatience. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the mystery." outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond Holmes. blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of have not had my rubber." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two already referred to. things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "How about poison?" Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he since then to throw any light upon what became of him." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a know what is wrong with it.' we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent fluttered off among the others. do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large Project Gutenberg-tm works. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous right! Sit down and let us talk it over." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. pound a week." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of straighten it?" desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "Where, then, is my wife?" on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' to Leatherhead. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I was keenly on my guard against him. common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all photograph a cabinet?" we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent this as likely?" "I have come for advice." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "It was." "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from to affect your life." "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? spare." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the do.' Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "It was an hour's good drive." "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "If so, much may have happened between." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "Proceed, then." with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are laugh and put his lips to my ear. Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from directors have had misgivings upon the subject." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." as the one I chose?' cause to be."