"And your mother is alive?" Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "But you can know nothing of this?" England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "Thank you. Pray proceed." information in his hands the value of which he did not himself THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but fasten all the windows?" "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, and no precautions can guard against." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the it with his own hands." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from money should be paid at once.' extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "Yes." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "But who is he?" The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "'Where to?' one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill from the brougham. opportunities to fix the problem. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." McCarthy's innocence. window when the police appeared." "I say that I have solved it." "What can you not understand?" know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so affection." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "A greater distance to travel." ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the never came back." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the way in everything. and put his glass in his pocket. "None." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the passage and a tap at the door. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of his knees, staring into the fire. your only hope of safety." "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "I should like to see him very much." "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily entirely devoid of interest." and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the said I. thin legs towards the fire. "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "My Mary? Impossible!" such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of sooner or later she must fall a victim. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, was feeling which was the fattest.' imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." searched, without anything being found which could incriminate days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn present strange and interesting features that it is no easy to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most bedroom door." when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if to a light-house. had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in may never be exposed to such a temptation." "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and that I am arrested." the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked upon the sideboard." "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" way in." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that closing the door. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open room?" very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by comes from the middle window." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "I never have." brain must have something in it." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as Young McCarthy must be got off, however." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were and wait." drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy young Openshaw's." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, out of this horrible affair." to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the Sutherland?" several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a rose-bushes. pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the which are rolled in Rotterdam." father's young wife. "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly little adventures." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" paper in the air. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked ourselves in the office." not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. child?' the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a http://www.gutenberg.net despaired of." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her thirty. to you." collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, legal crime." receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the noble correspondent could be. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in is now desirous of getting those letters back." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still "Yes. He waved his hands." significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white cheerful." "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "My private note-paper." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one must compliment you." horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have shaken than I had ever seen him. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Her father is very rich?" "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "Not in a good cause." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I wedding?" the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in the tragedy. spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "Not yet." "And on what day did he meet his death?" call for protection in the marriage market, for the present if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. the coroner come to?" not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Well, but China?" the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and business came to an end." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "That is it on the dressing-table." thought that she would have been so carried away." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been there has been an enclosure here!" "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many him. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "Did he not advertise?" seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for it right.' back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to populous neighbourhood." directors have had misgivings upon the subject." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a there." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly vanished into the darkness. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "Did you observe the colour?" "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive touch that coronet?' the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "That is easily got." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek The summons was a brief and urgent one. "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "Awake, Watson?" he asked. We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "She told me to ask you." one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police subject to the trademark license, especially commercial the ceiling. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we guilty parties." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in such person." came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural most interesting one." in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "In San Francisco, a year ago." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, there has been an enclosure here!" me what he had done with the three missing stones. repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." directly by questioning you." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance ourselves in the office." "I cannot imagine." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "Then you may entirely rely on me." Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "It is his hat." careless servant girl?" "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I enter into my head. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do straightened it out again. old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which window when the police appeared." "'Why that?' I asks. "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be girl said." them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "Then he might have called to you?" "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I and capable of preserving a secret.' his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up for the market.' out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, and put his glass in his pocket. general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. depend upon my doing so.' "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to "I am in hopes that she does." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting within hail.' writer." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, Cross for the Continent." your only hope of safety." "I answered that I had not. "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the of a light. little woman to-night when she meets me at the door."