sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "He is still with you, I presume?" "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "Never." is acting for the best. least a fellow-countryman. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a might help us?" quite distinctive." fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' redistribution. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had any more." education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, works. "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. said he. of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "Yes?" shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "And why?" Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. conceal it?" "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey in darkness. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "Where to?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "Precisely." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of system of imprisonment?" Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at gone before you can get him to hospital." basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "Will you go?" this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold power." how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated the little opening for the ventilator is." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage child?' reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "Then how many are there?" "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "Why, it's a dummy," said he. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful said I. disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may once more for Briony Lodge. corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you to-night?" I asked. trifles." common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is forebodings. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "Yes, from Horsham." resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very look upon these things in a different way." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will his fortune, and I went back to pa. search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of to have been novel and of interest." It may be so in this case, also." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing union?" "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and not personally threatened." had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "Nothing." depend upon my doing so.' the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" suspect him." unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was present." whatever might befall. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Not social, then?" "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of been deceived." world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire nothing with him." the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so will he say when he returns?" very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "Was she in good spirits?" "It is to him that this trophy belongs." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by letters?" "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT them?" need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "'Which dealer's?' might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, right! Sit down and let us talk it over." not as remarkable as your advertisement." pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may You want to know what became of those geese?" the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. felt?" "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you deduce something from that?" woven round him. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "Then, as to money?" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "On Monday." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do that I am arrested." see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the a little more before I quite committed myself. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "Nothing?" client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "By no means." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called that there was nothing in it, after all." into the bag, and made for the door. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "Nothing?" face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize outsides of the windows. be sorry for having acted so harshly." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary My friend smiled. in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt words came to my lips. doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating in this note: up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have own family. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer what is your own theory as to what took place?" away into the river." his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "A call for help, you thought?" "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg interests were the same as his." more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the in the dead of the night?' Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a success. the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded opened the door, and slipped through. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This know that the truth is known." they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began British peeress.'" over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. generous with you in money matters.' "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "No, I think that I'll take it." had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went that to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "'I have heard so.' Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "Perfectly so." views." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much important." "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm I nodded to show that I had heard. woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he business." "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I matter." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I ventilator." sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the mystery may be cleared along those lines." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we which was all perfectly true. late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. again before evening." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" here." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the out." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the signal between you and your father? arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found overpowering excitement and concern. the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I It may be so in this case, also." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "A call for help, you thought?" In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." opportunities to fix the problem. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." returning from some small jollification and was making his way preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "I am all attention, madam." time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' off." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." rat could hardly pass through." searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." it. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. visitors." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "I will try. What is it?" about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for narrative." as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "I am to be neutral?" "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a IS Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It your Highness to the police-station?" lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry heavily into it. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "Oh, yes, easily." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "You will not go there first?" rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "'Ten to two.' Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "It is very kind of you." "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. Mary, has deserted me." and the colonel ushered me in. "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." round and wave him away like that.' things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that "You were travelling in the States?" "Who by?" be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" impression behind it as though a window had gently closed the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "And that is--" for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "On Monday." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were during that time.' sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for very peculiar words of the dying woman?" pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would