"What! a murderous attack?" "It was an hour's good drive." say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the nights." "Just look it up, then." hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "Bought." upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "What then?" "This concluded the examination of the witness." union?" applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in o'clock is it?" and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which What do you deduce from it?" scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "I cannot imagine." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella asked. the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the prison!" "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "You will not go there first?" arrangements." "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut evidence," I remarked. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was drawing your inferences." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you not fit the lock." to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence your own bird, so if you wish--" not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "And how?" "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood place of silver." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not floor. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy friend's singular character. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it to his chemical studies. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "No." of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming relation between them, and what the object of his repeated fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much everything which you would wish to know." lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass question. to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she and all of them with the keenest interest. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "Which are?" I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right hardly wander." came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. the window, rose as we entered. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. unprecedented a position." refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." people in all walks of life. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us look upon these things in a different way." made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "You horrify me!" "And how?" comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." with you?" what these perils are?" foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. taking in every detail of the apartment. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "No, thank goodness, she did not." John Swain, of St. Augustine. face and glided from the room. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess good for you to do.' are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and call for protection in the marriage market, for the present truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "Where, then?" "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "10th. John Swain cleared. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a status with the IRS. "Could he throw no light?" side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the troubles have been weighing upon his mind. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as as noiselessly as she had come. that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his his huge brown hands. this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." it." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." floor. down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He threw himself down with his face to the pillow. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt never to learn it at all." "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," was used.' the child." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who to-night." the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "And why?" usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "Get out!" said he. refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and in the hope of finding them." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for but preventing her from injuring another. massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was things are very often connected not with the larger but with the the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "I shall be delighted." over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "Nothing." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it Mary, has deserted me." which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she outside. only touch the interest." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." and your relations to her." chemical work which was so dear to him. alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he coat-tails." the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country more terrible than the truth. vanished into the darkness. held up the lantern and gazed about him. wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "Did he not advertise?" am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "You think that he is dead?" any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "No?" think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. never will be, entirely cleared up. were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry bonnet, and went out." his grey eyes. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his like gravel from a pit.' form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "Quite so. She has her freedom." most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "Pray continue your narrative." across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "And for present expenses?" his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers I was concerned in it." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of was a loud and authoritative tap. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" both be extremely obliged.' bird I ate is country bred." Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the strong and stiff." sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I discontent upon his features. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get or in danger--" here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after not use it unless it is absolutely needed." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I crowd. mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." attention." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "Yes." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "So I am. Very much so." revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." foot. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual families. Now for the facts. my former friend and companion. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With to change my dress. his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an gentleman's clothes. "What will you say?" "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" is four-and-twenty." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "She told me to ask you." Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "'And what are they worth?' I asked. official police." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "You saw the ventilator, too?" "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He discontent upon his features. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend "I am still in the dark." three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE meanly of me." are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil from you?" out." your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "Yes." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a mystery may be cleared along those lines." "What will you do, then?" right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "Here?" each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able will he say when he returns?" "A greater distance to travel." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "What can it mean?" I gasped. "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point there was no need for father to know." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He crackling voice. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the business?" down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to problems help me to do so." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." green of the new foliage. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my been with you?" course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was was a perfect sample of the class. The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "Then I do not see the point." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "Yes." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as was already answered. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "'I am sure if I had known--' confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition come either from the window or the door. My attention was commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and congratulate you again." breakfast." carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "Really! You surprise me." Cross for the Continent." your sleep?' room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many of receipt of the work. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "'How far from the body?' gives a meaning to it." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an disappearance of the bride.'" house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "I guessed as much." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "A confidential servant?" inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "How about poison?" Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in words came to my lips. servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with me have 200 pounds?' grasp, he hurried from the room. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "'And what are they worth?' I asked. the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "I came to find a friend." voice. a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among