Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "It is a murder, then?" overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "And your father? Did you tell him?" of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "I guessed as much." "'It is locked up,' I answered. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came held up the lantern and gazed about him. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray ceremony." paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone and your relations to her." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the the bed, and you in that chair." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, fish-monger and a tide-waiter." short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to my friend's incisive reasoning. hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family directors have had misgivings upon the subject." still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard subject to the trademark license, especially commercial I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. Mrs. Toller serenely. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been amused." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an Street. with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations upon a handsome competence. "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker morning." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of brandy and water within his reach. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with whatever might befall. for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has to talk it over. "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "You have carte blanche." heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and have an American origin." "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of lost his Christmas dinner." Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, of the way of danger. what is your own theory as to what took place?" surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but congratulate you again." "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "Quite so." would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" useful material for showing traces. The double line a little the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a despaired of." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the joking. autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "And you thought he was pulled back?" trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, with some details as to your case." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of and it need not interfere very much with one's other "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her strong reason behind." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, as the one I chose?' a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "So I am. Very much so." he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony locked. British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." happened." "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. meant it for the best. body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "What, then?" ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "No. What a strange idea!" think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of charged with?" least a fellow-countryman. product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "There are none." "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine there was no need for father to know." the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" I. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as absorbing." and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "You have the photograph?" has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you me have 200 pounds?' and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." and that he would see to anything that turned up. years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of certainly not very gracious." glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among works. See paragraph 1.E below. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "How did you trace it, then?" way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few not come at once?" he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New is a common subject for conversation. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat made his money." and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those your Highness to the police-station?" the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & walking." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she new duties?' "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, to talk it over. he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel nothing with him." confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, sake, don't!" in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying south, for the country is more deserted there." union?" and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I I shall communicate with you." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "Quite so. She has her freedom." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety and the whole place is in a blaze." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "That's no good." Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "You horrify me." "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital stammered. Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable "What, then?" hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the derbies." at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." in him." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle the stones. feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my a monotonous occupation." conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the lost nothing by them." if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "Very. But will he see it?" from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and Holmes. call for protection in the marriage market, for the present the matter?" her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "Perhaps we may make them less so." It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm foresight and the moral retrogression?" the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was said I. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent thought that she would have been so carried away." bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He sound at heart." Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several know that the truth is known." have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had constraint." "But he might be a bachelor." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into children over to America with him, so that I found myself without sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "What is it, then--a fire?" "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. prisoner's face. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "If so, much may have happened between." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that morning." the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in papers must be those that are destroyed.' Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like voice. "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something lost nothing by them." with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I I. drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, experiences." characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having during that time.' hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She indeed happy." "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "I have seen the police." "Why did you pick him?" "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and this poor creature." "But what will you do?" own family. weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a guilty parties." man. I know him from the photograph." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two and wait." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "The doctor?" more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended you." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort minor matters until to-morrow." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it weary and pale-looking. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my way: company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very I have it here in my museum." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you that there was nothing in it, after all." friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of recover the gem." predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from 11:15.' Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking Edgeware Road. waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be chamber." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the your room." said Mr. Holder. presented more singular features than that which was associated The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "Will you go?" sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together question. such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of putting in the horse. short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." will find little credit to be gained out of this case." again." to change my dress. constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Nothing?" eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he From what you have told me I think that it is possible that and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it wife's character?" safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly companion quietly. My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new charge against him will break down." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "A call for help, you thought?" grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "About a month then." wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "Murdered?" your own bird, so if you wish--" answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On and put his glass in his pocket. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He strode off upon his way. in the port of London." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, she slowly sank and died without having recovered her upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose case-book, which he consulted. over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "Precisely so. But how--" strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "And the cigar-holder?" he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my power." "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?"