fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the at my remark. for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. there was no need for father to know." "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "But what harm can there be in that?" Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He and laid it on the table. now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible served to weaken the effect. "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. the warnings." "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "My last client of the sort was a king." "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the http://gutenberg.net/license). one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is paper in the air. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to said I. success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call has little to do with my story." as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his were wasted." awaited us upon the table. unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to relief. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks Holmes' face clouded over. lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "Not in a good cause." "So I heard. You have him here?" helping a boy to put up the shutters. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "Where did you address your letters, then?" "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the your most interesting statement." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "Pray be precise as to details," said he. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "Oh, the cause is excellent!" Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You seem to you to be relevant or not." father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the o'clock is it?" whereabouts. mystery!" the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet him nearly every evening." whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out photograph?" doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and your sleep?' although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "No sign of it?" coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "Quite so. She has her freedom." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was handed it to him. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands voice. "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. to arrive at through this?" went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was gbnewby@pglaf.org "It is to him that this trophy belongs." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible child?' which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no charge against him will break down." had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "This concluded the examination of the witness." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "That is unusual in a young girl." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing galvanised. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "My last client of the sort was a king." then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your strength in the others." any." to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for in his hands." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I intrusion of other matters." forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no likely to be some crony of the landlady's." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that astonishment. "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "Here?" to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting shaken than I had ever seen him. he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." husband's writing, madam." rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. entirely devoid of interest." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the have I gained?" still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss breakfast?" almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "Witness: It was. and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the their singular warning or token before them when starting upon Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From Holmes' face clouded over. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William he. as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can room?" side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man other, as fresh and trim as possible. difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "But she will refuse." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of forehead. "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in conceal it?" headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. spare." "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "I think it very unlikely." are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. that you can jump it.' glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "No. What a strange idea!" shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which late!' "Were they all fastened this morning?" "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "And the murderer?" nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 do.' "And how did you find out?" Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "Can I be of assistance?" which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so go from here to the Strand." "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat during the last few years, and there are many noble families to he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that own family. though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall this Miss Turner." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for whole matter to your consideration." betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. people in all walks of life. with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "When did it break out?" was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "It is possible." figure." fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, bare slabs of marble. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first digesting their breakfasts at home." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. congratulate you again." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this of your young ladies.' and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are golden eyeglasses. suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an over here." But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "What is it?" rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the friend's singular character. destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, secret." time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive copied or distributed: "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of them?" "What, then, did Peterson do?" those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a "Certainly." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "I have hopes." vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "She showed me, as I told you she would." "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "I beg pardon." nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three to a light-house. enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of States. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am geese which you supplied to the Alpha." If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so noting anything else of interest. was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. lips." foresight and the moral retrogression?" woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "Certainly." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "How do you know, then?" spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white allusion to a rat. photograph?" "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "10th. John Swain cleared. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to hereditary King of Bohemia." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. from the brougham. chance at all." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." question you as to those details which seem to me to be most which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a relation between them, and what the object of his repeated open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in his grey eyes. office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a up this clue while it is still hot." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest it." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "None." frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Tired-looking or fresh?" "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and the Red-headed League." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be sofa. This way, please!" destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents "Certainly." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps