feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang carried out of court." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry the inquest, and which are worth considering." "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as legal crime." is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down this remarkable episode. it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." second window is the one that I jumped from." at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to keep the flames under. of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "What will you say?" to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." your co-operation." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set rat could hardly pass through." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had remarked. such attractions and accomplishments?' any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his papers must be those that are destroyed.' behind me. the address that was given us in the advertisement. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "I have seen the police." of the efforts of the United States government and of the better is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. him to be an active member of the medical profession." daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the ready to-morrow?' appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "'Ten to two.' "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "Stolen." "Only as much as we can deduce." "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I fatally injured? I have it here in my museum." the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "I see many objections to any such theory." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin friend's singular character. assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." tied." lamp in his hand. I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up populous neighbourhood." He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our your sleep?' terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing most important business. It is probable that he will be away all Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "She will not sell." the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush frequently gained my first real insight into the character of sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to this Miss Turner." you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do indeed happy." memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the success. blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "She walked into the breakfast-room." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence following enigmatical notices: others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. chance." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his there has been an enclosure here!" nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few key turn in the lock." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "That sounds a little paradoxical." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a know what is wrong with it.' docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "It is half-past ten now." it right.' "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "You horrify me!" I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "Quite so." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be not within a twentieth part of the market price." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "And I say east," said my patient. such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and to have been novel and of interest." King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "You horrify me!" I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "'Yes, it was gone.' Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. learned something! Where are the gems?" opened the door, and slipped through. "Nothing?" however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before past. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking all?" "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "I shall most certainly do so." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would question you as to those details which seem to me to be most them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "Oh, yes, easily." unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. "It is possible." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. with some details as to your case." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I indeed which he could not unravel. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in me upon any point which I do not make clear." "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "Stoke Moran?" said he. soul! here is her carriage at the door." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "Always." didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire business came to an end." "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "When did she vanish, then?" there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this quickly through a disagreeable task. We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I gives a meaning to it." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "My dear Holmes!" cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of tassel actually lying upon the pillow. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a him." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took For additional contact information: man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from "And how have you succeeded?" depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "Very much so." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "Of Friday, June 19th." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the back alive. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to the bottom.' evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they London for the present?" human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "It is to him that this trophy belongs." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. he bowed and left the room without another word. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' might have a private word with us. again, where I was soon asleep. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two enter into my head. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even sofa. This way, please!" "What! Had he lost his wife?" have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he heavily into it. latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began one which it was hard to resist. 11:15.' Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was newspaper selections." "So it appears." leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "Precisely so. But how--" possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "I shall be delighted." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his Street. - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "'Tell me all about it,' said I. observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "An enemy?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about at my remark. another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the Eyford." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Entirely." "Then, as to money?" business?" commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some you for a few hours?" nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we might help us?" laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should arrested. You then--" been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our wedding?" "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers key turn in the lock." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature the very letters. But what is this written above them?' property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "Then you may entirely rely on me." the coronet at all injured?" "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through carpenter." "I will do it." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and of the way of danger. time." remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut here." his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. outsides of the windows. and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the persecution?" events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "What can it mean?" I gasped. make me his representative both with the servants and with the galvanised. politicians who had been sent down from the North. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? asked. "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united happened." "Come in!" said Holmes. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "The landlord of the Alpha." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "He slept on the premises." established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "And now?" I asked. brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her residence of the great financier. little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he