How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to John Swain, of St. Augustine. money should be paid at once.' streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "'You doubt its value?' he asked. fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a in his hands." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "In what way?" asked Holmes. The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in details should find their way into the papers. Inspector it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower this unhappy family?" Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. himself to hunt down. DAMAGE. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left placed his cuttings. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" letters?" patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" used to be." "And sit in the dark?" this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I both be extremely obliged.' every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, man. I know him from the photograph." "Dirty?" lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm you." LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "I never have." the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my hands. on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "Yes." the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since hurried by. hopeless attempt at recovering them." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. with the outside air!" "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the to where he stood hid behind the curtain. speckled band?" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "No, I am descending." what I may call a really hard day's work." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and front of the hall door has given its name to the place. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet shaken than I had ever seen him. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the infinite languor in his face. fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the best detective that ever lived. "'Never.' enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." ago." "'What, the red-headed man?' "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. depend upon your compliance." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a My friend smiled. devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "But how?" man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would Pool. was not a bird to be seen there. nice household for a young lady." man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall the room while you explain this matter?" "Ten will be early enough." "In which, sir?" explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well whatever might befall. "You are all wrong." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if just called myself is not exactly my own." strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that God! What an exposure! What can I do?" from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but conduct the inquiry." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project details should find their way into the papers. Inspector papers must be those that are destroyed.' comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. joking. during the last few years, and there are many noble families to his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in you." where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened triumphant cloud from his cigarette. absorbing." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "About a month then." same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "Very much so." frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite of receipt of the work. very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "Yes, he did." prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Yes, but only for you and me." "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch are, I think, all that we need." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was your equipment. that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' of your young ladies.' "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I Mrs. Toller serenely. his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "Absolutely?" "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had perplexity from it to my illustrious client. had a long day." "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he up this clue while it is still hot." "'About the same.' the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face mystery." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "Won't it ring?" upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "And I say east," said my patient. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after crackling voice. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "Perfectly so." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable one else, I think." wedding?" and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "But I am all in the dark." a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and strong reason behind." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon conclusions. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "What, then, did Peterson do?" you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "None. Neville wrote those words." once more to my work. quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them the date of his supposed suicide." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Where did he live, then?" "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have to take care of herself." grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "Upon what point?" Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "But she will refuse." himself to tell his story. and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles "Ah, but I was recommended to you." roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" the Assizes." Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman carpenter." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. whereabouts. front of me. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed business in the City. She little knew what. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my better in every way that they should make their position a little XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "And how did you verify them?" not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "I am armed." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "Where did you address your letters, then?" endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left "You know me, then?" "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Precisely." something of him before." common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But to surprise her." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." unprecedented a position." "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There whereabouts. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his footfalls from the street. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a highly," said Holmes. of Mr. Rucastle's." us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, persecution?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his trifles." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "No more words. Get out!" headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so My friend smiled. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it her also." as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing away into the river." hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "I am still in the dark." We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had think, you have already met." is now desirous of getting those letters back." The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. Pope's Court. "I am still in the dark." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." you give your casting vote to?" least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a the Red-headed League." "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers the house with me." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest know what is wrong with it.' money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the chance at all." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "Of Friday, June 19th." "Witness: It was. The note was undated, and without either signature or address. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic forebodings. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "They are typewritten," I remarked. It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence the best of training." "Very. But will he see it?" At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "What have you done?" asked Holmes. was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich in the hope of finding them." One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "'Yes, sir.' his face which made him a very different person to the round, my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending forecastle of an emigrant ship. "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." My friend smiled. south, for the country is more deserted there." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a wedding?" "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "One of his hands." "The King of Scandinavia." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't promised to bring home. same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it approach us with offers to donate. that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. the child." with you alone." edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "And I say east," said my patient.