the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of that you saw all that I did." "I have solved it." "You horrify me!" which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended swore that no one else had been in the front room during the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the jewels which you have stolen?' away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used maid will bring up your coffee." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES away in different directions, and I went off to make my own 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "What then?" at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a a room. very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, conversation I have gathered that they have been married about pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something fait accompli?" wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same least a fellow-countryman. as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "Well." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled affair. It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "None." eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside and the colonel ushered me in. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "Entirely." of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "You have but to name it." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Why did you beat the pavement?" "And what then?" "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time becomes even more simple." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they where Mr. Fordham shows you.' which it had come upon my father." where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers which are rolled in Rotterdam." Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where of the one which your family is now devouring." "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "But how?" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any death." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you posted to-day." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked matter." Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, away into the river." of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was bird I ate is country bred." furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "She told me to ask you." platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My October 9, 1890. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never geese which you supplied to the Alpha." crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "But to whom?" moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your rose-bushes. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is little trying to do so much typewriting?" fatally injured? would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a kindly on the shoulder. cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your to surprise her." where we are going." it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, said he. to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "'Yes, I promise.' endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one Holmes' thin, eager face. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can front of me. I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "Was he the only applicant?" stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we new acquaintance to Baker Street. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the me. You must get home instantly and act." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "And what did you see?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled look upon these things in a different way." "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" address. the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "'Most admirably.' "At what time?" "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "When did she vanish, then?" "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "You have it, sir, just as it happened." joking. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the I took the paper from him and read as follows: concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father outbreak?" "He is still with you, I presume?" drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he guilty parties." by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "None." few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is it. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & call you and give you the chance." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed to me. here and I will read it to you: possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, lost nothing by them." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid gone. infinite languor in his face. "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "Then, as to money?" "Well, it is a possible supposition." to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety use an arc-and-compass breastpin." is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "Deserted you?" "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to few hundred pounds.' Arthur Conan Doyle that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I strength of mind to control. not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no before the coroner and the police-court." About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "Get out!" said he. "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' all-comprehensive glances. Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "Imitated." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was business?" go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then been deceived." "But his left-handedness." asked. comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "Ample." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that hurried by. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at ways of our fellow-men." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are in the hope of finding them." "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in hands. had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "Of what day?" "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and that I can to serve you." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable washing it down with a long draught of water. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. spark where all is dark to me." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door Sutherland. to-morrow." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no know that the truth is known." I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which colour had been driven from his face. observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week will take you up to see the machine.' find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered green of the new foliage. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself back into the street. "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry know all about it," he snarled. joking. the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "'Why that?' I asks. precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old than was visible to me." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as felt the room to be a little close.' you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from of Mr. Rucastle's." "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the disappearance of these gems?" know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the which we had just quitted. letters?" "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "And it is--" devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away to a more successful conclusion." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her absolutely follow my advice in every respect." already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm it with his own hands." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the in your London, you will know that the office of the company is lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence I was concerned in it." "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the people don't know." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which the best of training." job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and the coroner come to?" unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily to Leatherhead. My friend smiled. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "But how will you look?" side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done of the vacancies.' charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great will he say when he returns?" the very morning of the wedding." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "But the mystery?" unprecedented a position." Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I into the room. Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "My dear Holmes!" have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "'Stolen!' he cried. Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have copied or distributed: shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers noble correspondent could be. prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the straightened it out again. closely." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow other lovers by making love himself." "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "Then he might have called to you?" you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. during which he might have communicated with his friend the stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the depend upon your compliance." be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "Where to?"