"Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "On your arm?" to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed more solid." from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and me. instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. and I shall be with you presently." "But who is he?" "You horrify me!" "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. could not have written that. It is the German who is so "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "What then?" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is felt the room to be a little close.' upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' locked." the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. are, I think, all that we need." interests were the same as his." connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, the running down." Holmes' face clouded over. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and away to you." mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "No good news?" the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and have had none more fantastic than this." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "I will not look." been." Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "Then I can wait in the next room." had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and Again Holmes raved in the air. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine call for it in person on Monday morning.' the ceiling. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "And how did you find out?" actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "By all means." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "'No, I know no one in these parts.' find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just must compliment you." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the the bottom.' Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger occurred." description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the question," said Holmes, smiling. "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony "Yes." rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, what is your own theory as to what took place?" fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "Upon what point?" me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent extraordinary contortions. outside. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "Never." Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "None." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "I am sure." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. quite distinctive." only touch the interest." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "But his left-handedness." o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "Nothing." They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Yes, from Horsham." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. me. You must get home instantly and act." traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "Yes, all." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into pity, because in other respects you would really have done very questionable one." clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry may never be exposed to such a temptation." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "Have you it here?" single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, developed." Dr. Gregory B. Newby not personally threatened." Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, which our visitor detailed to us. Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as The note was undated, and without either signature or address. Gutenberg-tm License. "And it is--" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be corner of the building. young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our him." "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Here?" room. us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me threw himself down with his face to the pillow. to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "'About the same.' blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted young Openshaw's." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently as yours." And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "What! a murderous attack?" "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. be sorry for having acted so harshly." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly his forehead." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "None." "No, finished." "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce three of the beryls in it, was missing. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the my room." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "You know me, then?" disturbance in my wife." this remarkable episode. towards the blaze. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any danger is over." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "None." The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "What can it mean?" I gasped. France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "Will you go?" points to suicide?" "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the are windows in it, of course?" part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "Upon what point?" confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that have had none more fantastic than this." "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a passage and a tap at the door. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Seven!" I answered. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when not come at once?" business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." tell him that I know him to be innocent." explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the it. note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low awaited us upon the table. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "And for present expenses?" have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the to some other building. approach us with offers to donate. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "My own seal." "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "And how in the world did you find them?" and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his indeed which he could not unravel. carpenter." another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, already been minutely examined." ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "Do you know him?" at my remark. is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you vague figure huddled up in the darkness. hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business away into the river." the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent envelope. "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally charged with?" violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. "In heaven's name, what for?" he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very had formerly been in part my own. one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "But his lameness?" you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." following enigmatical notices: then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. if she died from some sudden fright." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "Was there a secret marriage?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in intrusion of other matters." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am ran thus: crowd. pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we public press." he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss papers." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the obstinate." stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Stolen." "It is to him that this trophy belongs." her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "My last client of the sort was a king." to a light-house. surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "Her father is very rich?" his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into carried out of court." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were in. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "And who is her maid?" I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual unprofitable." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in south, for the country is more deserted there." learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, "Have you her photograph?" tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over there was no need for father to know." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "But how could you guess what the motive was?" who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "I should like to see him very much." Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." conclusions. Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not into her hand at the door and which lured her within their detective. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "I shall most certainly do so." chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for public press." character. the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the the Friday. Was it to be in church?" The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself envelope. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "Then you may entirely rely on me." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were ceremony." stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and there were one or two details which were new to me. But the making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple meant it for the best. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was or in danger--" He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to foresight and the moral retrogression?" Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing ready to-morrow?' The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Well, but China?" time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "Stolen." 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "Certainly." uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a pierced for earrings?" thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "It is true that I have been generally successful." "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low