as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was helping a boy to put up the shutters. authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you once more for Briony Lodge. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that waste of energy." The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, disappearance of these gems?" the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you is so. I know all about McCarthy." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which at once, for I have only half an hour." the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in him!" suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the point in the dark hollow of his hand. of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of without a word or a look. I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, Have you good authority for what you say?" "I cannot say that I have." photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the drawing your inferences." "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I Young McCarthy must be got off, however." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the companion. have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates to his chemical studies. his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. your equipment. "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "Why did you pick him?" question," said Holmes, smiling. But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "'Quite sure, dad.' knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed which it had come upon my father." sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious there." ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor License. You must require such a user to return or long narrative. is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. the inner apartment." clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and in your London, you will know that the office of the company is Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age to-night." to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to works. See paragraph 1.E below. settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic which was all perfectly true. "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "And Miss Sutherland?" "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "Pray let us have it, for all that." "What! Had he lost his wife?" "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "There is the writing." hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "Then you may be so with me." "Her father is very rich?" lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove bearing upon the case." place of silver." recover the gem." experiences." "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "I cannot tell." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "What!" he roared. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they shoulder; "he's all right." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to all?" abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those towards the blaze. have been better. It is all right." of this gang." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, His smile broadened. suddenly upon us." notes," he said. Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and and looked back. notes," he said. "I have solved it." "I will not look." "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "I beg pardon." looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate closing the door. earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the The King stared at him in amazement. "One of the highest in England." a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the not interfere, come what may. You understand?" the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when you give your casting vote to?" transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "Imitated." and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "The vanishing of the lady." every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of village inn over there?" "And for present expenses?" One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to place no limit on the sum I may draw." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his stepfather?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for very old mansion. him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which conceal it?" "No, but the enclosure is." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. in my life." in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, affection." "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in comes from the middle window." transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "Then you may entirely rely on me." "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "An enemy?" there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but recall any case within my experience which looked at the first right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the bled considerably." black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and and I shall be with you presently." me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point I approached. house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, and no precautions can guard against." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." letters?" elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "And how?" neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "Well." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a and files of the old papers, following the future career of every from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off stepfather?" hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." disappearance of the bride.'" as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. in the dead of the night?' found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you off." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "Bought." something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was strength in the others." very morning of my second wedding." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as good for you to do.' endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and know that the truth is known." think you a quite exceptional woman." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon searched, without anything being found which could incriminate you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of that?' those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "It may not come to that," said Holmes. what do you think they found in the pockets?" was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was that the gas is not laid on in his house?" to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "'Certainly not.' have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "Pray let us have it, for all that." "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." hopeless attempt at recovering them." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "No." http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I made him keep the appointment." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the the room while you explain this matter?" very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. and your relations to her." which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was come either from the window or the door. My attention was "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a evidence," I remarked. "Pray do so." "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a empty. "He slept on the premises." here." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his appeal." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the speckled band?" the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "The Coroner: What do you mean? trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are that he has suffered." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "If so, much may have happened between." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then who was a member of your goose club." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and not use it unless it is absolutely needed." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "To the police?" true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "You know me, then?" "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "Perfectly so." beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "And how?" "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for take the flies, but not before." "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "'Oh, no.' de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "Could he throw no light?" he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, "I have a cab outside." revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, and capable of preserving a secret.' obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. get her out of the way." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "Then I do not see the point." and no precautions can guard against." was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a You want to know what became of those geese?" will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "Certainly, madam." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his conversation I have gathered that they have been married about again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what all-comprehensive glances. ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do carriage. It was a chestnut." hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "Well, some hundreds of times." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "And for present expenses?" the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "'Oh, no.' of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon certainly do as you advise." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "Where, then?" man. I know him from the photograph." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I easy-going way." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "You are all wrong." affair. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and and your relations to her." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would said Mr. Holder. recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an