may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought ashen face. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "Thank you. And your address?" "Perhaps I have." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "Why? What do you mean?" have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return might help us?" hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in "No, I had a dozen." rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and at a side door. "Absolutely none." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers tightly behind him. absolutely follow my advice in every respect." with frightened eyes at his accuser. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his which we had just quitted. thirty. daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square galvanised. "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "Murdered?" the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "'Entirely.' with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was congratulate you again." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in crowd. this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window persecution?" case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and shag which I had seen upon the previous night. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I unclasping of his long thin hands. something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman people in all walks of life. you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "Which surely he restored to their owner?" time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "If I can be of use." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do may never be exposed to such a temptation." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. quick march!" hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "'Oh, no.' was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. nothing with him." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his redistribution. without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court subject to the trademark license, especially commercial conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly young Openshaw's." questionable one." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "'You cannot say what it was?' "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "'I am sure if I had known--' "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "Do you go out much in society?" "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were voice, changing her seat as requested. my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to served to weaken the effect. leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done taking in every detail of the apartment. "Witness: I must still refuse. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "But to whom?" "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person business?" reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "In which, sir?" "Which surely he restored to their owner?" as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what leaning back in his chair. reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." what is your own theory as to what took place?" elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, intrusion of other matters." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "'Stolen!' he cried. elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "Certainly." and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us coat-tails." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Very much so." and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are cigars in their mouths. "Ample." that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. yet." police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "I am still in the dark." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to away to you." me upon any point which I do not make clear." "I will get her to show me." a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "I should like to see him very much." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, and I shall be with you presently." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "I cannot tell." the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Again Holmes raved in the air. "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little John Swain, of St. Augustine. time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of during which he might have communicated with his friend the appeal." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough some mystery and the punishment of some crime." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed be. and glanced through. could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average to-night." credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "My dear Holmes!" that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the mysterious end." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me of note-paper. It read in this fashion: Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." that I am arrested." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, for securing the situation." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew thin legs towards the fire. round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn way: have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon to-morrow." I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." overpowering excitement and concern. furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and cup of tea. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, do." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone The note was undated, and without either signature or address. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you American. Then who could this American be, and why should he anything to do with the matter?" "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' we went to search for him, face downward in a little caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that their singular warning or token before them when starting upon "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you Gutenberg-tm License. "Won't it ring?" "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white have not had my rubber." investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "You heard nothing yourself last night?" "I cannot think." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it south, for the country is more deserted there." shaken than I had ever seen him. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "But how will you look?" screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he works. See paragraph 1.E below. of the vacancies.' to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately beg that you will break it off." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found beg that you will break it off." the little opening for the ventilator is." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "I am in hopes that she does." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "By no means." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, because she had spent so short a time in this country that she This is what he says: one's self under obligations.' dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering people don't know." 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be ago." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "We must sit without light. He would see it through the ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance bell. Holmes whistled. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a all?" refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." true." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and skylight. heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the this remarkable episode. had died away into the silence from which it rose. "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left Cross for the Continent." "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" congenial hunt. "Very truly yours, eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "Two days later this same performance was gone through under call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has McCarthy's innocence. "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that attention." "'Not at all. I only doubt--' so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not strength in the others." all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "My dear Holmes!" were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you manager. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made that I am arrested." the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "I am in hopes that she does." taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with asked. both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my the best of training." "'What do you call purely nominal?' "My own seal." "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as any more." "'Quite sure, dad.' your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she definite end. "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant unkempt, staring out at me. possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross miles off. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "'Very good.' charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to wedding?" time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat least a fellow-countryman. Serpentine Avenue. she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "May I see it?" band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is than to us. politicians who had been sent down from the North. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" wall." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of "'Which dealer's?' then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar are, and they are waiting for us." that I may have something better before very many minutes are laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "Yes. He waved his hands." had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish