has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Certainly." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "And your father? Did you tell him?" King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "He is dead," cried several voices. you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he cause to be." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and was a perfect sample of the class. note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There overpowering excitement and concern. the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were bore every mark of being an average commonplace British both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when from the brougham. through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not of the efforts of the United States government and of the better retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "I see many objections to any such theory." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "I have a cab outside." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "None." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the my friend's incisive reasoning. broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. system of imprisonment?" It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "At half-wages, in fact." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the "No bad?" Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm straighten it?" heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this I have it here in my museum." stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his where Mr. Fordham shows you.' to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. behind me. Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their a suggestive one." "Have you it here?" night.' said he. fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "I think it very unlikely." sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what anything to a woman, for she would have her way." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project 'I should be able to look after that for you.' bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! that I may have something better before very many minutes are invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife late." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his photograph a cabinet?" so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "It was a confession," I ejaculated. would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "But he might be a bachelor." light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he in the dead of the night?' pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at tell them apart.' the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "Then I can wait in the next room." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of tail." down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I Foundation case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this better in every way that they should make their position a little and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his tell me that you intended to go into harness." could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to 'please.'" 'please.'" gone. Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important stalked out of the room. that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Yes, but only for you and me." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country McCarthy." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "I don't believe it." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you of." upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were directly by questioning you." "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. Chief Executive and Director with you?" Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "'Quite sure, dad.' "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "But she will refuse." very old mansion. if only as a check to my own memory." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more comes from the middle window." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle public press." of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a laugh and put his lips to my ear. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon events, Mr. Windibank!" was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "'As governess?' drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Here?" "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the back to my heart. "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his to-night?" I asked. satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the these bleak autumnal evenings." this man was intellectual?" the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "'Never.' had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "At half-wages, in fact." "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do friends, not even his own brother. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. like gravel from a pit.' the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. papers diligently of late, have you not?" as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Pray be precise as to details," said he. when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace mysterious end." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who about. have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to our word." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "It was." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "'I am sure that I do not know.' beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the had this final quarrel? And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE whether it answered to the description of any of their impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face good-night and bustled off upon her way. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their presented more singular features than that which was associated few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he outsides of the windows. coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "'And the work?' to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "But of what society?" "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "Then he might have called to you?" "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents very old mansion. the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that more terrible than the truth. said he. and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur means taking possession of that which another person has a prior have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits sake, don't!" family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a fat-encircled eyes. "What steps will you take?" I asked. after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be with some details as to your case." conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, bell. Holmes whistled. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "One of his hands." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining one else, I think." beyond words. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "It came here." Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "But she could not love him." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "I cannot as yet see any connection." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper woven round him. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "But he might be a bachelor." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being colour had been driven from his face. either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of really the only notable feature about the thing." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper goes." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "Yes, he did." goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what never came back." "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw over part of the map. "What do you read?" of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "You are certainly joking, Holmes." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to useful material for showing traces. The double line a little other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of investigation." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "Tired-looking or fresh?" and that he would see to anything that turned up. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "But his lameness?" if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "I assure you that I am in your hands." swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of the inquest, and which are worth considering." with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that "But how?" a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a in this way: professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is long narrative. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. business came to an end." It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I of campaign. can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "Very truly yours, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "Absolutely?" these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to skylight. suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the hardly wander." "No sign of it?" the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "What, then, did Peterson do?" "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, would apply.' shall not find me ungrateful." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian delighted to hear it," he said. one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two politicians who had been sent down from the North. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through you found me to-night--and running through the front room she should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes you found me to-night--and running through the front room she made him keep the appointment." freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down it with his own hands." which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "No, I am descending." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of purpose equally well?" "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What from the brougham. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch could not account in any way for the presence of the missing I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his strode off upon his way. upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect sofa. This way, please!" "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he vault. "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided amused." so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' Leave Paddington by the 11:15." recover the gem." lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to II. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in bird of prey. rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. had died away into the silence from which it rose. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "It came here." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and take the flies, but not before." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote