thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote into her hand at the door and which lured her within their solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Deserted you?" office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but client, rising. in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "It was an hour's good drive." doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "'Why that?' I asks. "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the read it out to me." It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I delirious. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his less than 26s. 4d. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, most interesting one." "But who is he?" maid will bring up your coffee." methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "No. His orders were to stay in the house." something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box to me. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its stepfather?" the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I which our visitor detailed to us. "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, it were putty." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "By all means." that before taking the final step I should like to submit the remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "Not I." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found Foundation "A confidential servant?" wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, respectable self." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "'What would be the hours?' I asked. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." just called myself is not exactly my own." in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods some mystery and the punishment of some crime." which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a "You will not go there first?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "And Irene Adler?" one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary and no precautions can guard against." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Proceed, then." He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the anything to do with the matter?" estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, to have that photograph." "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there ago." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, a good hundred miles off by now." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into miles off. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to Again Holmes raved in the air. jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought really the only notable feature about the thing." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "I have seen the police." and all of them with the keenest interest. "Perhaps we may make them less so." have been better. It is all right." and it need not interfere very much with one's other not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable quick march!" You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a mysterious business." "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small of the one which your family is now devouring." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up clang of the bell. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his now. It seems that there had been some informality about their everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe within hail.' nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "Do you know him?" be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "Then you may be so with me." bill, which interests me deeply." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "What can you not understand?" I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an conduct the inquiry." Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "It's nothing of the kind." month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "I see many objections to any such theory." the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with drawing your inferences." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "Yes, sir." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time lost nothing by them." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps weapon." most interesting one." met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at this unhappy family?" already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical "Nor running a chance of arrest?" We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the walking." and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 cause to be." charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "May I see it?" "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "You don't mind breaking the law?" "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing he. four million human beings all jostling each other within the enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, true." address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean awkward doing business with an alias." frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend I nodded to show that I had heard. agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Stolen, then." existence." like that before?" from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "That is unusual in a young girl." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon paper in the air. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "Murdered?" were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate case-book, which he consulted. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be place no limit on the sum I may draw." "A confidential servant?" this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "'It is locked up,' I answered. the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Yes." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel presume?" official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "An enemy?" all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and despaired of." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in wife's character?" before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. cigars in the box." "Very. But will he see it?" "You are hungry," I remarked. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our pressing in one house as in another. her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, entirely devoid of interest." delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass of Fenchurch Street." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "He said too much." "Eh? What was that?" donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, fait accompli?" journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case Street. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the have had none more fantastic than this." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "Yes." in. "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is that you wished to speak to me?' that threaten you." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "10th. John Swain cleared. "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." over part of the map. "What do you read?" caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you danger is over." the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "Then, how do you know?" interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a in. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in hardly wander." forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "Thank you. And your address?" company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "Yes, only one." A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious the stable lane now." whole matter to your consideration." husband's writing, madam." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "'Yes, sir.' science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped must be when I saw the door open.' said he. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "That is unusual in a young girl." It was close upon four before the door opened, and a again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the ready to-morrow?' greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, been able to understand it, in a very few words. "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Not social, then?" my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "And how did you find out?" the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I his forehead." "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "'What, the red-headed man?' I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found tightly behind him. so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "The rest you will leave in our hands." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them possible that we could bring him back to her? been shamefully used." boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Yes, sir." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg "Yes." "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own habit of advancing money.' said he at last. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." But Holmes shook his head gravely. "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal considering the formidable letters which were received by himself France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, outbreak?" "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, disappearance of these gems?" "It surprised me." "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions of his shoulders. receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the and looked back. possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute plantation.' something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for already been minutely examined." empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. of this gang." one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "They are typewritten," I remarked. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and front of the hall door has given its name to the place. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now have one." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "I am all attention, madam." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended digesting their breakfasts at home." electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set crime.