tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "But I have heard all that you have heard." "How often?" leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office least a fellow-countryman. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called too. cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "You saw the ventilator, too?" feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what past. "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "The knees of his trousers." we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" the devil!" attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. straighten it?" "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "It certainly sounds feasible." "'Where to?' shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "It goes to the housekeeper's room." some place of shelter and let the county police know what has I nodded to show that I had heard. direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "You horrify me!" here and I will read it to you: light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "'Then let me do so?' to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "The best possible." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the singular points about the case. What did the police think of the very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "A confidential servant?" had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a breakfast?" "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden that London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "I say it is." where she found matters as described by the last witness. "What I expected to see." rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. miles off. "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon the south-west, I see." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "There is the writing." "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "You saw the ventilator, too?" Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "Very truly yours, exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," strength in the others." the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "Come in!" said he. province." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the sit on the left-hand side of the driver." British peeress.'" which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "'What then?' I asked. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. of this gang." "Perhaps I have." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug reach." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told train from Paddington which would bring you there at about my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, be. square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "Very much so." see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "No legal papers or certificates?" "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "What shall I do?" have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with must compliment you." copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "Perfectly so." sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever points in connection with it which never have been, and probably pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. daring than any effort of the imagination." 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out sound at heart." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "That is it on the dressing-table." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That article?" when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in to arrive at through this?" and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for had formerly been in part my own. fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all get her out of the way." leaning back in his chair. Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one written. man. in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" union?" room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. gives a meaning to it." star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it until night should bring an explanation. from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. think that any burglar could have done. I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found this man was intellectual?" The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg and all of them with the keenest interest. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "I cannot imagine." the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and as the one I chose?' "In heaven's name, what for?" side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I prove to be little relation between the different incidents of the devil!" photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "I would give my fortune to have them back." "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good to you." brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring questionable one." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we it." fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the feature." him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable to surprise her." "The rest you will leave in our hands." the tragedy. providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the straightened it out again. in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, characteristics, but those are the more obvious." to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "I am all attention, madam." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it o'clock is it?" the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "That is possible." "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "Not I." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, has little to do with my story." His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to someone who had been in Australia." man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. was not a bird to be seen there. even of instruction." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was unprofitable." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him shoulder. turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself sooner or later she must fall a victim. faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some events, Mr. Windibank!" In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My and all of them with the keenest interest. "It is no ordinary one." eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "I assure you that I am in your hands." "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET ordinary clothes on?" her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and him and tried to hold him back. "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then strong reason behind." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to nonsense.' "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "They are typewritten," I remarked. collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. breakfast." houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of be there in time for your coming." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each I approached. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: once more. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our because she had spent so short a time in this country that she quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "But I am all in the dark." to-night's adventure." "Entirely." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of during which he might have communicated with his friend the ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "Thank you. And your address?" "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not lamp. could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. was used.' last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds you for a few hours?" but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "No bad?" you understand?" without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "'About the same.' "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her there were one or two details which were new to me. But the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously a little more before I quite committed myself. the stable lane now." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "'As governess?' back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "I have hopes." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong letters?" "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms more solid." for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he dramatic, in fact." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "It looks newer than the other things?" utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the the driver. train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "'Why that?' I asks. WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you "I saw her in conversation with her maid." and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees prove to be little relation between the different incidents of of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "'I am sure if I had known--' am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Very well, sir. And this stone?" him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "It was an hour's good drive." "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just again." known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "An accident, I presume?" like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, me. chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any him nearly every evening." King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well ventilator." connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the question you as to those details which seem to me to be most pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took