lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "No. What a strange idea!" "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in McCarthy." in his power. "It is very kind of you." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the a few minutes he said that it would be all right. rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have may never be exposed to such a temptation." "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City front of the hall door has given its name to the place. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have works. See paragraph 1.E below. and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And prepare for the new role I have to play." disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I in his power. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the leave you to your papers for a little." are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and client, rising. in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass not within a twentieth part of the market price." what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "Nothing." unclasping of his long thin hands. cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then passage and a tap at the door. the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third developed." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. have had none more fantastic than this." "Pray continue your narrative." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a emerged. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "Then, how do you know?" It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "Get out!" said he. "The landlord of the Alpha." had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "But of what society?" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You client, rising. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "It is very kind of you." "Then I am your man." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be in his hands." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a least a most suspicious remark." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father and files of the old papers, following the future career of every second window is the one that I jumped from." learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "'You cannot say what it was?' she used." frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Witness: I must still refuse. "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' down from London to inquire more deeply into it." the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions ill-usage at the hands of fortune. of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment humiliation." playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. me. You must get home instantly and act." with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I note?" my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important the general public were present, then?" mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." everything which you would wish to know." "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the have got?" "But your client--" have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior the coroner come to?" "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done I shall communicate with you." call it cruel." it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for this man was intellectual?" disappearance of these gems?" myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my points to suicide?" in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that a few minutes he said that it would be all right. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, behind me. sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last the house with me." a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was than to us. better in every way that they should make their position a little "Breckinridge is his name." he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat man. with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she note?" description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "But how will you look?" As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The forecastle of an emigrant ship. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in standing smiling on the door-step. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "Very much so." upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not nice household for a young lady." devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you he died? red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Your presence might be invaluable." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the http://www.gutenberg.net him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such village inn over there?" reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid with some details as to your case." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that the driver. hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "I should be immensely obliged to you." "Her father is very rich?" developed." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "I should be immensely obliged to you." "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were an introduction to him?" things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others bell. Holmes whistled. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead plantation.' shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "No." pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen ran thus: Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "Yes, there are nearly always some there." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates nice household for a young lady." and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a least a fellow-countryman. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness there were one or two details which were new to me. But the plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain laugh and put his lips to my ear. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and of the efforts of the United States government and of the better column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. you." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between there were so many in the whole country as were brought together whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the formed some opinion?" gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. hopeless attempt at recovering them." and inquire as to the address." address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. tapping his fingers upon the table. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. all-comprehensive glances. "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. appeared upon the scene." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such meanly of me." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little impression behind it as though a window had gently closed go back?" had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Because he was handy and would come cheap." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying papers on the sundial.'" suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the train.' "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a he died? receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "That is easily got." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office to tell." to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "And leave your case unfinished?" "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect your bag." enter into my head. the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "I say it is." hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my forecastle of an emigrant ship. encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true awaited us upon the table. "Yes, certainly." firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no The telegram which we eventually received came late one night crowd. hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "Then how many are there?" she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "And your father? Did you tell him?" said he. "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine as he folded up the epistle. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "Quite so. She has her freedom." and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always remarked. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I John Swain, of St. Augustine. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until paper in the air. "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' such attractions and accomplishments?' of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "Where to?" souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything out of this horrible affair." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she once more for Briony Lodge. broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "Just look it up, then." newspaper selections." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, answer." would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Stolen." seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "And now?" He raised his hand. 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is knowledge of the world." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "Oh, fresh and glossy." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "'Ten to two.' master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent it means?" wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But most interesting one." given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your