at my remark. companion imperturbably. round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "You were travelling in the States?" "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As families. Now for the facts. moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And nights." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." morning." But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "Where to?" the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more towards the blaze. and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "Nearly eleven." present." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain It may be so in this case, also." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in not personally threatened." "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off outsides of the windows. Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, followed. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought cause to be." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a Arthur Conan Doyle the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "I am about to be married." sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon in his power. populous neighbourhood." "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near amused." himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "No legal papers or certificates?" eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud straighten it?" began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "You forget that I know nothing about it." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "Yes, it would be as well." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In instituted." "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, III. out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were away in different directions, and I went off to make my own Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with tassel actually lying upon the pillow. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What overpowering excitement and concern. cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some intimate personal affairs in this public manner." work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 train.' The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "By train from Waterloo." great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he beyond words. "Come in!" said Holmes. "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "'And the work?' the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone things are very often connected not with the larger but with the bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of which our visitor detailed to us. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to front of me. The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. his knees, staring into the fire. was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "Was there a secret marriage?" hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but way in." which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a all-comprehensive glances. chance at all." feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you desk. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "Always." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am this man was intellectual?" "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "There are none." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "She walked into the breakfast-room." photograph?" the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "My private note-paper." of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had my friend's incisive reasoning. this poor creature." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "What, then, did Peterson do?" conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "You are all wrong." "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "Then he might have called to you?" "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all again on its way. As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "And is that all?" 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that passage and a tap at the door. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." once more on the important position which you have been fortunate observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I attention." this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. the one as in the other." should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't as yours." Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you married her." "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might certainly not very gracious." "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's unprofitable." Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "And you thought he was pulled back?" circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "She showed me, as I told you she would." "I see no marks." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "And who is her maid?" several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. business matters.' "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, Count Von Kramm." inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. one or two very singular points about this room. For example, call for it in person on Monday morning.' "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. than to us. can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime From what you have told me I think that it is possible that effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "'Ten to two.' layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and do.' life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just upon the shelf for the interim." "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, copied or distributed: desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed him to be an active member of the medical profession." dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded Eyford at 11:15.' you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "I warn you that they are very incomplete." The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the "Was he the only applicant?" "And who is her maid?" or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "Do you know him?" "Just look it up, then." then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "Oh, fresh and glossy." of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will window when the police appeared." what I may call a really hard day's work." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be telegram would bring me down to your help." searched, without anything being found which could incriminate distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient detective. which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand closing the door. "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the the side-table." "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do villagers almost as much as their master. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly standing smiling on the door-step. mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her room. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "Yes, sir." the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. an introduction to him?" preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Texas, I think." person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do examine." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "Just look it up, then." woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "Two days later this same performance was gone through under would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop gentleman's clothes. his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "Yes." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat existence." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we depend upon my doing so.' "Yes, only one." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "Perfectly so." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "And Miss Sutherland?" cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a heavy and sharp instrument." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his him to be an active member of the medical profession." and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for leave you to your papers for a little." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me even so self-evident a thing as that." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and my little problems." "And sit in the dark?" the side-table." observed. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." weigh very heavily upon my conscience." but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as tell him that I know him to be innocent." you in your example." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in dramatic, in fact." desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "I will get her to show me." Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Whose house is it?" those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their questioning and rather startled gaze. "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life as he remarks, very much against the son." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "I fear not." "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "We must have a cab." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE during the last few years, and there are many noble families to really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "The best possible." post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "The Cedars?" four million human beings all jostling each other within the what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have quick march!" papers must be those that are destroyed.' for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same in a friendly supper." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "Thank you. Pray proceed." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "You are hungry," I remarked. "Where did he live, then?" "VIOLET HUNTER." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: be sorry for having acted so harshly." "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do strength in the others." meant." "Absolutely?" "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a and that he would see to anything that turned up. lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "I will, Miss Turner." "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "That is also quite modern," said the lady. Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, which our visitor detailed to us. Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any there in twenty minutes." think that any burglar could have done. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood and no precautions can guard against."