"It is no ordinary one." evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Project Gutenberg-tm works. "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. until night should bring an explanation. and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "'No, I know no one in these parts.' said I. it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when cup of tea. The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in to you." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "How about poison?" satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the him to be an active member of the medical profession." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "I never have." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him wall." roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the politicians who had been sent down from the North. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope question you as to those details which seem to me to be most sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of to miss it." the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so the date of his supposed suicide." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Thank you. Pray proceed." her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were new raised from a basin. out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real three of the beryls in it, was missing. o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a furiously. trifles." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little written. security.' submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "No." "You have the photograph?" for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come husband's writing, madam." points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" girl said." which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "Were they all fastened this morning?" and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "'How far from the body?' tied." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "Yes, he did." "Yes." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What purpose of examination. "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from had no one to advise her at such a crisis." my little problems." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "You think that he is dead?" suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "It is true that I have been generally successful." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." what I may call a really hard day's work." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "What do you mean?" many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not have I gained?" smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very is four-and-twenty." his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "They are typewritten," I remarked. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. Heh?' Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "Dirty?" "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his tear off another piece?' my little problems." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some lost nothing by them." hereditary King of Bohemia." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "That is possible." "None." happened." afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face charge against him will break down." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for my special province." great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly amused." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "Perfectly so." "It was." slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." any more." prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but already been minutely examined." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the the address that was given us in the advertisement. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, you." "But you were on a friendly footing?" paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the chamber." There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "ARAT," I read. not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my shaken than I had ever seen him. formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "I cannot tell." "You think so, too?" determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, was lame." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "Yes, certainly." thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. for and were ordered to this address. "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this that the gas is not laid on in his house?" observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the conduct the inquiry." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "Where, then?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that main points of my analysis." sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful lectures into a series of tales." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "'Quite sure, dad.' had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "Will you go?" "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "You saw the ventilator, too?" "It is possible." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Do you know him?" she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his have not had my rubber." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "You horrify me!" large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her your bag." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "I think it very unlikely." Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always the Red-headed League." "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. guilty parties." any more." always that they were such commands as a lady might with plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to during that time.' A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an that, and I came down." long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly Surrey." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "Just look it up, then." he. sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "How are you getting on?" "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." have one." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Yes." "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "The Coroner: What do you mean? "Not yet." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her empty. "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day in this note: wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we if only as a check to my own memory." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined furiously. disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, kind enough to tell me what I should do." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." people in all walks of life. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "It may not come to that," said Holmes. agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few of your young ladies.' he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "How did that help you?" you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of to you." records." bedroom door." your room." promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A suspect him." "What have you done?" asked Holmes. with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the not come at once?" may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "Pray tell us what has happened to you." among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. lamp in his hand. should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "But how will you look?" There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones know what is wrong with it.' felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly when your master had gone out." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with Heh?' Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for it were putty." "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in returning from some small jollification and was making his way helping a boy to put up the shutters. "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside memory. "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently stalked out of the room. the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice of the efforts of the United States government and of the better than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. begun to whiten, even as mine has." "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my tell him that I know him to be innocent." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew noble correspondent could be. for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if happened." The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all The King stared at him in amazement. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in carpenter." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. morning." "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and side. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news coroner's jury." pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought a monotonous occupation."