WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "No." he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was must be when I saw the door open.' "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "Stolen." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a touch that coronet?' "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer are windows in it, of course?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' III. however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were threw himself down with his face to the pillow. your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "Precisely so. But how--" south, for the country is more deserted there." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a villagers almost as much as their master. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "How can you tell that?" have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees "My Mary? Impossible!" had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though empty. the window, rose as we entered. One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" who was a member of your goose club." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "But how?" "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "Yes, there are nearly always some there." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took way in everything. "Two days later this same performance was gone through under qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter back into the street. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, appointment with me for six o'clock?" rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "One horse?" interjected Holmes. it means?" firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "Stoke Moran?" said he. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "I will do it." singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "We have tried and failed." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "One horse?" interjected Holmes. Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "Will you bet, then?" While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my posted to-day." touch that coronet?' the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, get her out of the way." to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked me. not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I sparkled upon his finger. be.' "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." it with his own hands." Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the lost his Christmas dinner." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "He said too much." "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than six. Come in!" I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "'How far from the body?' and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went whether it answered to the description of any of their "Yes." 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "In answer to an advertisement." his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be it means?" bearing upon the case." business at Coburg Square is serious." "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his the nursery. his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "And what did you learn from him?" we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "Yes." "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite least a fellow-countryman. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white carriage. It was a chestnut." "I promise," said Holmes. them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke there has been an enclosure here!" Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "And Miss Sutherland?" humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor might help us?" in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "Pray do so." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America made him keep the appointment." dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to vanished into the darkness. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, are windows in it, of course?" "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." useful material for showing traces. The double line a little is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "But how will you look?" need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but them?" "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be I think that I could be of assistance to you." had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A lamp in his hand. "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." criminal. We have already had experience of such." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and have accepted such a situation. "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "I think that I had better go, Holmes." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of through." editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "Seven!" I answered. was lame." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me tell him that I know him to be innocent." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution crackling voice. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. "No." of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at locked. "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "One horse?" interjected Holmes. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "No, I had a dozen." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "It was a confession," I ejaculated. least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the gives a meaning to it." "On your arm?" landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an and it need not interfere very much with one's other "Where, then?" sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post words came to my lips. "Yes, that is the Crown." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk the loss of it. happened." rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he becomes even more simple." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. this remarkable episode. garden below. "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the populous neighbourhood." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "'Stolen!' he cried. "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall money should be paid at once.' free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You yards of it?' what these perils are?" Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door over with notes and figures. week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "You have compromised yourself seriously." photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt and shall probably return to London by the evening train." metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink British peeress.'" abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a fled together." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" became a certainty. returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed the salesman. were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "The Coroner: What do you mean? "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek sparkled upon his finger. his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "But of what society?" if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the such attractions and accomplishments?' And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, strong reason behind." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass room had already been engaged for us. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "The rest you will leave in our hands." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to should be taken.' address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to to tell." an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should asked with his eyes open. Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they made him keep the appointment." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you III. not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "I will, Miss Turner." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "If I can be of use." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we silent! Oh, he will be silent!' her also." "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on against a man in the prime of life?" of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, discontent upon his features. the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not where we are going." is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged very peculiar words of the dying woman?" so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything know that the truth is known." figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey "It looks newer than the other things?" all that?" "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do that I may have something better before very many minutes are "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." constraint." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous she slowly sank and died without having recovered her broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of the very letters. But what is this written above them?' him. for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet burst out into a roar of laughter. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of conduct the inquiry."