"And sit in the dark?" wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "'Yes, I promise.' I leave." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "No, distinctly professional." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. said Mr. Holder. were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was The police have openly confessed that they can at present make frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague it." the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "Certainly." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "How did you deduce the select?" put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass was it brought him the coronet? This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with been able to understand it, in a very few words. true." the station." "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "He said that you could solve anything." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "But I am all in the dark." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "She will not sell." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob place no limit on the sum I may draw." that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my means taking possession of that which another person has a prior have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage place no limit on the sum I may draw." Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "'What do you call purely nominal?' week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' be. my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "And on what day did he meet his death?" be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the "Certainly, madam." interested in these little problems, and since you are good I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the conduct the inquiry." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project for the market.' right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "I should wish to." "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down footfalls from the street. into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "Yes, from Horsham." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "Breckinridge is his name." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "No." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, ashen face. about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "At the wedding breakfast." a very grave face. situation." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "What then?" stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite when you have done it." main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" arrangements." "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and acquaintance?" from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a wife's character?" twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and fire. You quite follow me?" "Then you may be so with me." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "Yesterday." them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "And your mother is alive?" for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into the nursery. "Upon what point?" waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place business came to an end." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and occurred." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, little trying to do so much typewriting?" "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "I have solved it." investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set for securing the situation." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and indiscretion." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. people in all walks of life. locked." "Very murderous indeed." "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." article?" the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly which should have the effect of calling the attention of the threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "We were both in the photograph." follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and sparkled upon his finger. printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I thirty. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "I am sure." "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is people in all walks of life. patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" voice. "That also I could fathom." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I invisible to me," I remarked. "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining get her out of the way." profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "I cannot imagine." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Thank you. And your address?" after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will it. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he house for five minutes.' glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece back alive. 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to appointment with me for six o'clock?" breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. perplexity from it to my illustrious client. Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "He slept on the premises." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked at once, for I have only half an hour." XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his ventilator." call you and give you the chance." "'There is a drive, then?' Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very in. "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" "It is to him that this trophy belongs." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. are, and they are waiting for us." he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the burst into a hearty fit of laughter. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges must compliment you." exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "And Irene Adler?" heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed business at Coburg Square is serious." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "I have a cab outside." seen the man in the road." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I late." "That also I could fathom." past. explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished walking." For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat other means.' hardly wander." was lame." "Why? What do you mean?" darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. golden eyeglasses. George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "It is true that I have been generally successful." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with next day. "And now?" He raised his hand. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew the iron safe, which he closed upon it. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always fear." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences putting in the horse. "A client, then?" mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. again on its way. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and have had none more fantastic than this." "Where did he live, then?" Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "That you are never beaten." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he never to learn it at all." as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "Where, indeed?" red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among placed his cuttings. sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the "Precisely so. But how--" copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting behind me. been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed during the last few years, and there are many noble families to chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next wedding?" is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. bill, which interests me deeply." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of room?" towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through dramatic, in fact." the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the "The Coroner: What do you mean? find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as man. I know him from the photograph." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." chance at all." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold brought there to personate someone, and the real person is grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. "No, thank goodness, she did not." it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "And who is her maid?" in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the points to suicide?" maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran the warnings." crime. enter Dr. Roylott's room." must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither posted to-day." "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously held up the lantern and gazed about him. "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "And how?" bell. Holmes whistled. shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and nothing with him." "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "Yes, I have one waiting." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The will take you up to see the machine.' "'I shall certainly be there.' great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit the ceiling. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "What are they?" all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "What then?" door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and examination of the premises, but without finding anything which and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a key turn in the lock." "Was the window open?" Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "It surprised me." something of him before." "Well, some hundreds of times." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, beyond words. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his late." broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." Munro.' dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "I cannot imagine." on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon seven miles from Eyford Station.' "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet pictures, libraries, or plate. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. habit of advancing money.' use an arc-and-compass breastpin." empty. seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which whatever might befall. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his papers diligently of late, have you not?" "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the me where it went to?" entirely devoid of interest." "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "And you thought he was pulled back?" used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into whole matter to your consideration." Leadenhall Street--and--" point in the dark hollow of his hand. "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even to-night?" I asked. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. off." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. second window is the one that I jumped from." brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the "Where, then, is my wife?" We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "The King of Scandinavia." coroner's jury." confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without I. parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts,