"My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he upon an income of about 60 pounds." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "And who is her maid?" Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "I have solved it." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid touch that coronet?' chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "And your father? Did you tell him?" could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in I nodded to show that I had heard. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "Entirely." - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "None." so.' "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "What office?" It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "My opinion is in no way altered." me upon any point which I do not make clear." man. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation floor. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to introspective fashion. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "'How far from the body?' set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to as yours." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "My dear Holmes!" breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east the nursery. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away it means?" direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who threw himself down with his face to the pillow. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, question. "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "Yes, they were peculiar boots." The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better fashion which was peculiar to him. Again Holmes raved in the air. his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and the window, rose as we entered. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. open." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "I cannot tell." floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at into her hand at the door and which lured her within their public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining strode off upon his way. down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "The King of Scandinavia." shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly I leave." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw of your young ladies.' and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "The vanishing of the lady." hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying his grey eyes. if only as a check to my own memory." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the during which he might have communicated with his friend the not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one a very grave face. job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean business in the City. She little knew what. out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or hurried away. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "They are typewritten," I remarked. outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and my secret was safe in his possession. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "'No, I know no one in these parts.' We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "I cannot say that I have." "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and think that he is innocent?" up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and electronic works answer." 1.E.9. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I what these perils are?" "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they troubles have been weighing upon his mind. so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents 1.E.9. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during becomes even more simple." "Breckinridge is his name." what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular as the one I chose?' stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now returned to France?" whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all father's place of business?" can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "It surprised me." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. bears upon the case?" address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him extraordinary contortions. all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from fait accompli?" money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, on re-entering her father's house?" or other trace. But how on earth--" hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the into the room. alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "'Yes, it was gone.' my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his until night should bring an explanation. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if purpose equally well?" "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But ADVENTURE II. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he then?" into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and and files of the old papers, following the future career of every going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' would then never go into court at all." of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "You have compromised yourself seriously." will take you up to see the machine.' guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in cigars in their mouths. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." morning." Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of to miss it." wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be works. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook whatever might befall. to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry and capable of preserving a secret.' array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Nothing." hardly wander." overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "What have you done?" asked Holmes. is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander not come at once?" It was close upon four before the door opened, and a Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the in. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not as noiselessly as she had come. them present such singular features as the strange train of "How on earth--" at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything works. See paragraph 1.E below. twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I to some other building. tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "No, distinctly professional." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been tell them apart.' companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "We were both in the photograph." saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to been with you?" whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their once more for Briony Lodge. "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If you." so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a tear off another piece?' whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Yes, the wine-cellar." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "You did not overhear what they said?" gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, matter." "Texas, I think." "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "But how will you look?" unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been questionable one." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. train.' taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "Stolen, then." "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "Yes." of." the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Holmes, the busybody!" He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the correct than the official force." mystery." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "Very truly yours, new duties?' her also." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "And did you observe any change in her then?" married her." had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and allusion to a rat. parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "She told me to ask you." could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should Holmes rather sternly. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but acted in my house last night?" in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at better in every way that they should make their position a little is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, go back?" the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Then I shall certainly come." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not my little problems." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The carried out of court." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is married her." send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "Yes, sir." "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near held up the lantern and gazed about him. should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I I nodded to show that I had heard. "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if grasp, he hurried from the room. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle himself to tell his story. sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "The knees of his trousers." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of over part of the map. "What do you read?" understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "You are all wrong." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "'Oh, no.' "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "I cannot say that I have." "What do you make of that, Watson?" "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the chamber." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and my special province." "Thank you. And your address?" together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "I don't say that. Perhaps." and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." charge against him will break down." charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "I should be immensely obliged to you." "Yes, it was twisted." himself. age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. like gravel from a pit.' "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As some water from a caraffe. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." purpose of examination. problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the "And for present expenses?" seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "Can I be of assistance?" to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every amused." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "Very murderous indeed." "He disappeared so suddenly." just ask you whether you had heard it.' walking." vault. "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible awaited us upon the table. Cross for the Continent." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and works. permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the