could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" records." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home my former friend and companion. call the police, let the police find what they can.' and the colonel ushered me in. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case both be extremely obliged.' it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a from you?" fishes. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, of this gang." traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling companion. "How often?" head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "'Yes, sir.' entirely devoid of interest." quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "I would pay ten." "Did you become engaged then?" strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "Pray let us have it, for all that." have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if business?" suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is redistribution. followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "I see many objections to any such theory." have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" security.' his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" was used.' from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "Two days later this same performance was gone through under I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "What, then, did Peterson do?" resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "And how in the world did you find them?" "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for crackling voice. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Pray let us have it, for all that." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and advice." purpose of examination. has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it all-comprehensive glances. note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I hurried by. silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, least a fellow-countryman. will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a once more on the important position which you have been fortunate to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and DAMAGE. happened." "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "I should be immensely obliged to you." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the one which it was hard to resist. upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door standing smiling on the door-step. permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "You don't mind breaking the law?" "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and me. You must get home instantly and act." it with his own hands." she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "Here?" hardly wander." there." "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that light and attacked it." there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "Yes?" "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were there is a decided draught." that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? electronic works "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was to-night?' know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "When did it break out?" him to go away.' "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are telegram would bring me down to your help." electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. something of him before." it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "Won't it ring?" "What then?" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the your sleep?' that the gas is not laid on in his house?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "Why, what do you mean?" cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, skylight. skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I straighten it?" She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that "How often?" interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid neither fascinating nor artistic." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "What, then, did Peterson do?" coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered discontent upon his features. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the amused." "There are none." questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank page at http://pglaf.org "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in details." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and train.' my friend's incisive reasoning. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the spark where all is dark to me." regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible quick march!" the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by The police have openly confessed that they can at present make accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, carried out of court." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence Does that suggest anything?" still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! just called myself is not exactly my own." "How many? I don't know." of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I forebodings. ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything I have it here in my museum." All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the to-night?" I asked. wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we photograph?" again before evening." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I of his shoulders. unclasping of his long thin hands. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing arrested. You then--" with you alone." which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the them?" is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "My opinion is in no way altered." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls been lifted and conveyed somewhere." We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, relief. an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at in this note: both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "What then?" my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "But what is it you wish?" why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it colour had been driven from his face. found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at to-night's adventure." any more." heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you stepfather?" "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. of." and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "No." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a suddenly upon us." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his three of the beryls in it, was missing. "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up you." over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that man. I know him from the photograph." minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced him to be an active member of the medical profession." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the the roots. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." cigars in the box." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have hurried by. "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head your only hope of safety." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident fasten all the windows?" "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than use an arc-and-compass breastpin." night.' said he. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all beyond words. about. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "Texas, I think." began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "Where, then, is my wife?" waste of energy." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as it." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too voice. beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "Yes, sir." younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "Nothing." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "Pray continue your narrative." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some call you and give you the chance." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the