"It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "I should like to see him very much." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the I nodded to show that I had heard. that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away The police have openly confessed that they can at present make lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "Stoke Moran?" said he. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the You can understand that this register and diary may implicate case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The trying to your nerves." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "'How far from the body?' "Never to return." deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' has little to do with my story." basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "So I have heard." strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my completely overtopped every other consideration that we both Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug when you have done it." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "My photograph." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "One of the highest in England." which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Clair, of Lee." suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the said he. "Well, but China?" "There is the writing." village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the business came to an end." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "Yes, sir." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear meant." police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "My dear Holmes!" "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that page at http://pglaf.org stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He she slowly sank and died without having recovered her sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." national property. I was determined that the law should have its in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I said he. work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with brain must have something in it." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "What will you say?" furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm absorbing." "She walked into the breakfast-room." of it with the greatest attention. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they you." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my newspaper selections." "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "'Then let me do so?' "'Yes.' a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I it? Did I buy the geese off you?" his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, started for the Temple to see my husband. his fortune, and I went back to pa. air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice the station." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Do you know him?" the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on not fit the lock." drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "The knees of his trousers." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said to affect your life." You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where public press." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my and laid it on the table. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond confronted him. brandy and water within his reach. the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. ourselves in the office." the south-west, I see." "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "'Yes, it was gone.' Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "What, then, did Peterson do?" incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." do you make of it all?" take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "What do you mean?" be sorry for having acted so harshly." had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it manager. cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather figure." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest in your London, you will know that the office of the company is inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, introspective fashion. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern least a fellow-countryman. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." the station." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "May I see it?" your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "The murder was done with it." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to with her." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now the iron safe, which he closed upon it. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "No, but the enclosure is." deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "Your French gold?" "And I to find an enemy." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we or in danger--" police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle it." is so. I know all about McCarthy." time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that call the police, let the police find what they can.' seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but companion. adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off the running down." "But you have hopes?" and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "I assure you that I am in your hands." think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As to arrive at through this?" assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "No." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that knowledge of the world." what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Deserted you?" had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "Well?" maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news confronted him. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "Where to?" man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of bird I ate is country bred." "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" a suggestive one." last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have man. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "Well?" "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he Sutherland?" commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." that you saw all that I did." married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" miles off. you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Did you observe the colour?" The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, Sholtos." "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "Did you observe the colour?" License. You must require such a user to return or of Fenchurch Street." face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set hour?' Leave Paddington by the 11:15." battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with the night.' your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "Then how many are there?" nothing with him." gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "That is not always so easy." what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me present strange and interesting features that it is no easy voice. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence pictures, libraries, or plate. matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was hurried by. "VIOLET HUNTER." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into opportunities to fix the problem. drove away. own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and hurried by. and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was his huge brown hands. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking soul! here is her carriage at the door." and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "Not social, then?" order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; situation." could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I charge against him will break down." "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms empty. Young McCarthy must be got off, however." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "What shall I do?" question you as to those details which seem to me to be most his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was your own bird, so if you wish--" that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock affection." upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed children over to America with him, so that I found myself without thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed him, that man would not have given me such complete information deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "Which are?" answer." useful material for showing traces. The double line a little Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we infinite languor in his face. them present such singular features as the strange train of Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," stepfather?" to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "Precisely." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "One of his hands." seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "Yes, sir." trying to your nerves." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of an introduction to him?" still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change "No more words. Get out!" he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to had this final quarrel? very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "I think it very unlikely." maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been relation between them, and what the object of his repeated cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "And your mother is alive?" ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both congenial hunt. "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, upon an income of about 60 pounds." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "Of what?" the house with me." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "Then I am your man." "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut must compliment you." "Thank you. Pray proceed." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and roused himself from his reverie. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have was a perfect sample of the class. The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground,