family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors dead, shall be safe with us." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the the loss of it. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. you." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "'Certainly not.' of note-paper. It read in this fashion: and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "Yes." whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for him. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party quickly through a disagreeable task. he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for name is different." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, behind me. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "And Irene Adler?" gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "'What would be the hours?' I asked. built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which bonnet, and went out." opportunities to fix the problem. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "No." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said several quiet little villages up there." with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such main points of my analysis." and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of upon the shelf for the interim." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven least a fellow-countryman. little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled to Leatherhead. put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, occurred." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates memory. course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was of the way of danger. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "To ruin me." "I will do it." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can never to learn it at all." common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "Then I do not see the point." "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, all-comprehensive glances. possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire promised to bring home. corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There the roots. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "Because he was handy and would come cheap." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler other, as fresh and trim as possible. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be Where does the thing come from?' prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I here and I will read it to you: her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." this as likely?" one of them." you." have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." a little more before I quite committed myself. maiden herself was most instructive." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general page at http://pglaf.org directly by questioning you." pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "How are you getting on?" Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "You did not overhear what they said?" lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a acquaintance?" encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Where did he live, then?" believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Serpentine Avenue. discontent upon his features. the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "But she could not love him." Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it this truth that in these little records of our cases which you the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "No sign of it?" St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "She told me to ask you." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "No?" seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow fish-monger and a tide-waiter." Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. copied or distributed: widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which was it brought him the coronet? had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "I am in hopes that she does." "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "Well, it is a possible supposition." temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend miles off. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of Holmes rather sternly. hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting do you make of it all?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his suddenly upon us." asked. excitement. over with notes and figures. other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this them?" a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any hurried away. said he. back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! paper in the air. "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom the bed, and you in that chair." one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "'Where to?' solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "Was there a secret marriage?" woman who has had her own way to make in the world. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap was shining brightly. photograph?" bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. me have 200 pounds?' chair. drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and people in all walks of life. them?" "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had The telegram which we eventually received came late one night I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "The best possible." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is during the last few years, and there are many noble families to caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and be best to do. state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem this unhappy family?" observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "What is it, then--a fire?" Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "May I see it?" 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to have I gained?" "Really! You surprise me." black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you light and attacked it." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and point in the dark hollow of his hand. gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." think, you have already met." about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now a monotonous occupation." she might be summoned. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. in his hands." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my crime." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "No." "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "Why, what do you mean?" was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as into the bag, and made for the door. exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all open." "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do more solid." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: the morning and make my own way in the world.' is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "'What are you doing there?' he asked. "My Mary? Impossible!" self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident I took the paper from him and read as follows: Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." business." set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we your Highness to the police-station?" down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich infinite languor in his face. "I have solved it." "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "No bad?" clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their completely overtopped every other consideration that we both About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "Yes." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he remarked. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in recover the gem." strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "An accident, I presume?" spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but there in twenty minutes." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "Nothing." Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "And leave your case unfinished?" that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke even so self-evident a thing as that." shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a vague figure huddled up in the darkness. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a Project Gutenberg-tm works. of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "The decline of his fortunes, then?" cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "No." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "I would pay ten." the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people she to prove their authenticity?" England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "But his left-handedness." be sorry for having acted so harshly." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to tassel actually lying upon the pillow. and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang joking. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do very morning of my second wedding." and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, national property. I was determined that the law should have its "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Yes." will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "Yes, at the mines." has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, advice." to-night's adventure." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "When did it break out?" recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong 11:15.' "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of opened a pocket-book and took out a note. the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside that there was nothing in it, after all." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong "No, thank goodness, she did not." "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it