himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the my friend's incisive reasoning. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. or other trace. But how on earth--" alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "I cannot tell." trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "Precisely." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, to-night?" I asked. attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had really the only notable feature about the thing." "I cannot tell." "No bad?" "Is he quiet?" stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at were new raised from a basin. mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which suspect him." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant it with his own hands." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a question you as to those details which seem to me to be most good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get sentimental considerations in the background which would induce stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it o'clock is it?" examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in was used.' surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. bled considerably." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I she has been waylaid. There has been no result." look dissatisfied." than to us. "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "Not I." "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. tell me that you intended to go into harness." of them has the shutters up.' his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "Yes, it would be as well." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "I was certainly surprised to find you there." his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to Street. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "'I have already given you my word.' "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "'In my own bureau.' his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "To an end?" minor matters until to-morrow." him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, your room." into the room. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice quite distinctive." fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. him!" receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy overpowering excitement and concern. house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "'Oh, no.' joking. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking my friend's incisive reasoning. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. I nodded again. presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." served to weaken the effect. enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been this man was intellectual?" WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. a suggestive one." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his that you can jump it.' putting in the horse. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending will not take me long to tell. step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "But not more so than I to find you." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" States. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium despair." process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I I am not easy in my mind about them." completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name is a common subject for conversation. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of For additional contact information: that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems what these perils are?" discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, carried out of court." VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "Was she in good spirits?" the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "I shall most certainly do so." He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "I am to be neutral?" an introduction to him?" adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "What! a murderous attack?" her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be fashion which was peculiar to him. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "What is it, then--a fire?" thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "It certainly sounds feasible." however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he this as likely?" "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "I warn you that they are very incomplete." was used.' LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and until night should bring an explanation. you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious "It was a confession," I ejaculated. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and that before taking the final step I should like to submit the and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in of Fenchurch Street." "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining until night should bring an explanation. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "And leave your case unfinished?" Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "Pray continue your narrative." Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small suspect him." which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to bill, which interests me deeply." terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and certainly not very gracious." side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and behind me. "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "Ten will be early enough." "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the intrusion of other matters." upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those companion quietly. naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and writing, and yet I know it well." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "Oh, yes, easily." foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "And sit in the dark?" but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "When did it break out?" had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a forehead. "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "'I have already given you my word.' carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "It was a confession," I ejaculated. were new raised from a basin. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." been with you?" caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my meant." The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door awkward doing business with an alias." "'Ten to two.' myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "And how did you find out?" and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get DISSOLVED. sparkled upon his finger. Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "She told me to ask you." "'Is purely nominal.' "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" "You have but to name it." at home. He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her I was concerned in it." was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "How often?" her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "10th. John Swain cleared. "Not I." "But he might be a bachelor." That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I other, as fresh and trim as possible. and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, you." leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of waste of energy." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin everything which you would wish to know." lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm to take care of herself." belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which formed some opinion?" enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't said he. hard-headed British jury." 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open taking in every detail of the apartment. "Texas, I think." "'Yes, I promise.' swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me this remarkable episode. We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been go--none." "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "You did not overhear what they said?" "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "It was." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, been deceived." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my amused." and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." legal crime." ways of our fellow-men." I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and my former friend and companion. waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular "'Why that?' I asks. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house cost them two and thirty pounds." have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling the Assizes." said I. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "Where is it, then?" order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard people in all walks of life. entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly from you?" Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, was keenly on my guard against him. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be behind me. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "How can you tell that?" fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage bonnet, and went out." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "What then?" behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body coat-tails." lumber-room." "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "My dear Holmes!" "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is down in his armchair and closing his eyes. He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. "She will not sell." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." hardly wander." Munro.' took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I mystery!" feature." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in said Mr. Holder. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the voice, changing her seat as requested. "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much page at http://pglaf.org though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in