"'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Street. as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "I was mad--insane." photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. mystery!" India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours to miss it." fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the money should be paid at once.' time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's pressing in one house as in another. posted to-day." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "Then how many are there?" "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "Yes." seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "In the cells." of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that not interfere, come what may. You understand?" from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was everything which you would wish to know." "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, really the only notable feature about the thing." over part of the map. "What do you read?" "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my night.' said he. "Then you may be so with me." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the becomes even more simple." "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the of note-paper. It read in this fashion: happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "By all means." varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought instituted." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "What then?" laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight second." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong shag which I had seen upon the previous night. where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" to tell." companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "Then what has happened to him?" really the only notable feature about the thing." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." very peculiar words of the dying woman?" even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special carriage. It was a chestnut." doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we infinite languor in his face. pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "To the police?" purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a crime." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "Nearly eleven." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the leaning back in his chair. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "What have you done?" asked Holmes. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt that I am arrested." "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and emerged. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with opportunities to fix the problem. keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. this as likely?" he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "That also I could fathom." "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "Thank you. And your address?" Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Was she in good spirits?" and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I particular state visit http://pglaf.org houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "How did that help you?" brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "Yes, that is the Crown." "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "Yes." any." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your success. could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four went to the Alpha were town bred." out of this horrible affair." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting of." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" your billet.' of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a London for the present?" was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "How do you know, then?" before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Where, then?" I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "Has he come with you to-night?" have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was your room." furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "But she could not love him." Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of should be so warm over such a trifle." over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "No." running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual was already answered. Leave Paddington by the 11:15." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "Absolutely none." "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "But how?" unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "And I." "Come in!" said Holmes. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "Will you bet, then?" will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very man. rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it other, as fresh and trim as possible. "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. place, I think that there is good ground to think that the examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "I never have." to that open window." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so entirely lost his self-respect." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. himself. "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "I shall be delighted." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and arrested. You then--" stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "What is it?" with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of you do it in twenty minutes!' and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham silent! Oh, he will be silent!' particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend of fine shops and stately business premises that they really "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the village inn over there?" fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "They are typewritten," I remarked. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "What of the rat, then?" Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if things are very often connected not with the larger but with the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "I beg pardon." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Is he quiet?" his huge brown hands. dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "Yes." affection." teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a your sleep?' which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "You think that he is dead?" shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, must compliment you." "She told me to ask you." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "Ah!" these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "But what harm can there be in that?" absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power searched, without anything being found which could incriminate ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before to-night?' thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the the warnings." the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, envelope. and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the My friend smiled. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the me have 200 pounds?' bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "A client, then?" have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' despaired of." to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across it." "In what way?" asked Holmes. a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "The landlord of the Alpha." one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." that before taking the final step I should like to submit the blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your matters immensely." "That is possible." size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without has little to do with my story." "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again even of instruction." "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "Witness: I must still refuse. never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would words came to my lips. I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "None." day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to clang of the bell. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here pierced for earrings?" main points of my analysis." fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." to affect your life." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry not use it unless it is absolutely needed." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which that you can jump it.' garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "But how could you guess what the motive was?" will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "No, I think that I'll take it." waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "Quite so." remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "That is also quite modern," said the lady. hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the where she found matters as described by the last witness. style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "Pray tell us what has happened to you." fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "Is he quiet?" "That's no good." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank kind enough to tell me what I should do." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very you want, then?' cigar and let me expound." the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity to have that photograph." "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Yes, from Horsham." his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and photograph?" "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." the coronet in his hands?" there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter green of the new foliage. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it at a side door. once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one this as likely?" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on