my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to I think that I could be of assistance to you." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George evidence," I remarked. permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness exactly what you advise." his face. doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I bonnet, and went out." 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a certainly not very gracious." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "That is not always so easy." each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of been deceived." multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is "It is a murder, then?" the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with Again Holmes raved in the air. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "What I expected to see." perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. our word." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of of campaign. that I may have something better before very many minutes are eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have is entirely a question of barometric pressure." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's photograph a cabinet?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "And now?" I asked. kind enough to tell me what I should do." time." the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "What! a murderous attack?" "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present Holmes rather sternly. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me you understand?" "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon new duties?' "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to chamber." front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden than was visible to me." "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I examine." again on its way. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the was already answered. however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A populous neighbourhood." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a official police." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his But Holmes shook his head gravely. seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." crime. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the only touch the interest." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself burst out into a roar of laughter. "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "My dear Holmes!" immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "Breckinridge is his name." her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You problems help me to do so." a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was assist you in forming an opinion." ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with country, and eventually married, without anyone having a St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty cigar and let me expound." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already the station." which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' congenial hunt. cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by done what I asked you, Jones?" blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "But you would not advise me to refuse?" discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The or in danger--" "But how will you look?" felt the room to be a little close.' "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "Not I." authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always as he folded up the epistle. all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has bare slabs of marble. my room." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" strode off upon his way. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "'Ample.' I approached. step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "You horrify me." "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come copied or distributed: experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. spare." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "I will try. What is it?" While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of bell. Holmes whistled. effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my head. So long, then!" even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "'Stolen!' he cried. secret." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently than to us. walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and families. Now for the facts. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally lids now and glanced across at his visitor. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally that he has suffered." "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "And I to find an enemy." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his subject to the trademark license, especially commercial would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. the matter." Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "It is possible." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your together. The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which gone before you can get him to hospital." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. me. outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." detective. only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little Dr. Gregory B. Newby know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face existence." "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" that you can jump it.' better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez Sholtos." morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "9th. McCauley cleared. in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the the dangers which encompass me." "I beg pardon." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "Could he throw no light?" "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, disturbance in my wife." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "I am all attention, madam." coroner's jury." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in crime. appointment with me for six o'clock?" head. So long, then!" practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "What then?" signal between you and your father? from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are eavesdroppers?' wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in you for a few hours?" Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to tightly behind him. stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing and inquire as to the address." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my with the outside air!" wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for of fine shops and stately business premises that they really though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "We must have a cab." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what that, and I came down." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. way: the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. handed it to him. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that imbecility!" he cried. "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed fear." some water from a caraffe. charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of official police." I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes case-book, which he consulted. red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a reach." "Of Friday, June 19th." "I should be immensely obliged to you." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns spark where all is dark to me." of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "That you are never beaten." drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the the station." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such the inner apartment." highly," said Holmes. over with notes and figures. miles off. shaken than I had ever seen him. "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is spark where all is dark to me." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "Of Friday, June 19th." impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this second window is the one that I jumped from." may have an influence upon European history." said Mr. Holder. "I know where it is." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were he bowed and left the room without another word. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had careless servant girl?" "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained both be extremely obliged.' astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work McCarthy's innocence. really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I that I am arrested." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of remarked. "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or