"Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" matter." recall any case within my experience which looked at the first leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "What steps will you take?" I asked. key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and "Your presence might be invaluable." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that "But you were on a friendly footing?" there when the Rucastles went away." "Yes, certainly." to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied in a very precise fashion." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "Why? What do you mean?" drawing your inferences." nonsense.' minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of and have this put in the evening papers." have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, meanly of me." reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you for the market.' "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch the bottom.' have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now done what I asked you, Jones?" I was concerned in it." the coronet at all injured?" battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is the address that was given us in the advertisement. all-comprehensive glances. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "What steps will you take?" I asked. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Not yet." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where morning." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "In the cells." plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a was it brought him the coronet? beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the writing, and yet I know it well." "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "'Is 4 pounds a week.' explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we locked. an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "No legal papers or certificates?" It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was of his shoulders. "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It in. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "They are typewritten," I remarked. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting matter." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "My stepfather's business papers." red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "I will do it." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some invisible to me," I remarked. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the "Yes." education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy upon the sideboard." may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons few hundred pounds.' road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove daring than any effort of the imagination." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Nothing." "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and your room." days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, the running down." McCarthy's innocence. examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my been." you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right think you a quite exceptional woman." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and must be when I saw the door open.' to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned I. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which so far?" do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis I held the little printed slip to the light. wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "Where did you address your letters, then?" the King without delay." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "We must have a cab." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the followed. mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away once more for Briony Lodge. round and wave him away like that.' villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up lamp. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked writers could invent nothing more crude." ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" right! Sit down and let us talk it over." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "No bad?" fact, we may call it conclusive." "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' several quiet little villages up there." indeed which he could not unravel. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice of his shoulders. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what have been better. It is all right." by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous "Thank you. And your address?" "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the This is what he says: and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the off." "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A Again Holmes raved in the air. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and danger is over." King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "How about poison?" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "By no means." good-night and bustled off upon her way. it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must towards the blaze. lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put persecution?" winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" served to weaken the effect. you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth nothing with him." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in woman." He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. His smile broadened. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "My own seal." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." persecution?" the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the you give your casting vote to?" Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "You think so, too?" "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "Nothing?" ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of memory. "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. politicians who had been sent down from the North. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my less than 26s. 4d. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same of the vacancies.' It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I one's self under obligations.' at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." ways of our fellow-men." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its that space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so closely." "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is meant it for the best. happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "Who was the criminal, then?" a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "It is a murder, then?" problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "Yes, it would be as well." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "But how?" schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent any little problem which you may submit to me." you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "Precisely." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. started for the Temple to see my husband. "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "What then?" his wife has ceased to love him." Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' it." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "This photograph!" the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the everything which you would wish to know." been shamefully used." of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "'Yes, it was gone.' with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than Lestrade of Scotland Yard." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. conceal it?" town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "Dark enough and sinister enough." Serpentine Avenue. Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the meanly of me." A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. persecution?" About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon seen the man in the road." "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior gives a meaning to it." deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin the Assizes." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both you do it in twenty minutes!' information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him acquaintance?" "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, go from here to the Strand." "I do." "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of the coronet in his hands?" the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. the south-west, I see." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who any little problem which you may submit to me." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "I say that I have solved it." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "Not in the least." these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "Will you go?" so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from of them has the shutters up.' inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote "'Certainly,' I answered. Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this little adventures." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his laugh and put his lips to my ear. do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." wedding?" midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "Perhaps I have." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the