writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." jewels which you have stolen?' my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to your troubles." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, I held the little printed slip to the light. relation between them, and what the object of his repeated solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "Then how many are there?" served to weaken the effect. "No, finished." to have been novel and of interest." "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "You think so, too?" friend's singular character. "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But been deceived." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "She showed me, as I told you she would." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual him to be an active member of the medical profession." "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are Clair, of Lee." headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the hard-headed British jury." "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one passage and a tap at the door. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. will find little credit to be gained out of this case." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "Yes, but only for you and me." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece exactly what you advise." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own Holmes' face clouded over. A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "Yesterday." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback ill-usage at the hands of fortune. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of all that?" kindly on the shoulder. "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, even so self-evident a thing as that." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place death." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." the child." "I am about to be married." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who silent! Oh, he will be silent!' dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. indeed happy." at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser became a certainty. back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving some city in a dream. the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "None." occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "It is very clear." abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his key turn in the lock." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. drawing your inferences." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "Two days later this same performance was gone through under solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "In heaven's name, what for?" the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make gentleman's clothes. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing noble correspondent could be. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "How did you trace it, then?" "Ten will be early enough." and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." disturbance in my wife." "How on earth--" labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "I have come for advice." Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." emerged. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "My dear Holmes!" "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the the bottom.' out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of locked. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the like that before?" young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may brandy and water within his reach. kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "And leave your case unfinished?" advice." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, during which he might have communicated with his friend the would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. should be taken.' shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "What then?" which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a to tell." see a sister of mine apply for." hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because here and I will read it to you: Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "'Ample.' stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had late!' greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman helping a boy to put up the shutters. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and presented more singular features than that which was associated and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "Yes, they were peculiar boots." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have she used." such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not call for it in person on Monday morning.' "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon whole matter to your consideration." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a "And the murderer?" is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a investigation." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His key of the affair now." what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a closing the door. one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "Always." dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "Not in the least." of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in any." autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "You have a clue?" entirely lost his self-respect." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "To ruin me." go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the empty. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other child?' may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child notes," he said. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "His face fell immediately. while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which morning." "'Oh, no.' in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking certainly not very gracious." yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" and the whole place is in a blaze." his face which made him a very different person to the round, assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with threw himself down with his face to the pillow. detained." conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly if she died from some sudden fright." the coroner come to?" Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and of." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down him." clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent other lovers by making love himself." should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over business." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a and looked back. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock you give your casting vote to?" succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." enough to aid us in our search." been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as lumber-room." one's self under obligations.' "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened seem to you to be relevant or not." "The Cedars?" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he she used." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself prison!" Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might Does that suggest anything?" a good hundred miles off by now." beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her papers." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to existence." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, Street. that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster him!" "Then how many are there?" until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "The murder was done with it." perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may Lee, in the county of Kent." and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Pray do so." Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down my secret was safe in his possession. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, husband's writing, madam." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds think that any burglar could have done. even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced 'I should be able to look after that for you.' breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "It is no ordinary one." of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a brain must have something in it." her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice behind me. armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "'Ten to two.' Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "One horse?" interjected Holmes. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is if she died from some sudden fright." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my Henry Baker is a member." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy are, I think, all that we need." A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "Then you may be so with me." begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong we went to search for him, face downward in a little "'And the work?' his cane at the bell-pull. weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that The summons was a brief and urgent one. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I "Absolutely none." "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of and no precautions can guard against." back into the street. years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "My dear Holmes!" I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Why, it's a dummy," said he. said Mr. Holder. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like good-night and bustled off upon her way. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his opened the door, and slipped through. "Why? What do you mean?" Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "What will you do, then?" slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against chance." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "My own seal." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "It is possible." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "At half-wages, in fact." had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side