It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I voice, changing her seat as requested. to go into your room and bar your shutters?" within hail.' Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from everything which you would wish to know." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "None." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "But of what society?" building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, will take you up to see the machine.' I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell started for the Temple to see my husband. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated fashion which was peculiar to him. however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's was keenly on my guard against him. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "He slept on the premises." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "By no means." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, anything to a woman, for she would have her way." About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "That is it on the dressing-table." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what strength." "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She into the bag, and made for the door. "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "I cannot imagine." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to whole matter to your consideration." the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" particular state visit http://pglaf.org labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "Will you go?" once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact "Yes, it was twisted." "Yes." had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with the best of training." answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the formed some opinion?" "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "Here?" thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, side. yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." his huge brown hands. which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "So I have heard." moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at the salesman. there is a decided draught." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite the stable lane now." confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he villagers almost as much as their master. next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "Her father is very rich?" Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "Yes, he did." "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough helping a boy to put up the shutters. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "I do." "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "No. What a strange idea!" "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "'Ten to two.' dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very disappearance of the bride.'" at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is questioning and rather startled gaze. "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Did your wife hear all this?" details." happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the Mrs. Toller serenely. interest. They are important, you understand, without being fact, we may call it conclusive." habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in it were putty." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "In San Francisco, a year ago." "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, figure." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of directly by questioning you." "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "I am sure." laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, in a friendly supper." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "Was he the only applicant?" probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers strength." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black peculiar to him. loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, a room. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "I think it very unlikely." had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "Will you go?" "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "'And the work?' "Quite so. She has her freedom." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of definite end. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It long narrative. the devil!" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should done what I asked you, Jones?" still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert business." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the this poor creature." the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." of campaign. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while guilty one." Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six Mary, has deserted me." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to behind me. and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid Lestrade of Scotland Yard." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "He is dead," cried several voices. "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into said he, "my real name is James Ryder." would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "Where, then, is my wife?" got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, the coronet in his hand?" there has been an enclosure here!" surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE morning." "It is very clear." "Won't it ring?" heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "Then I shall certainly come." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "Pray do so." in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Then I can wait in the next room." "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes not personally threatened." case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the points in connection with it which never have been, and probably Clair, of Lee." "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "Witness: I must still refuse. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but For additional contact information: "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "She showed me, as I told you she would." "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "I am all attention, madam." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, the coronet in his hands?" gone. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his back to my heart. "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I whole matter to your consideration." methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no ran thus: at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "Get out!" said he. the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and address. "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with had this final quarrel? the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink it." "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "A client, then?" which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" British peeress.'" was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you back to my heart. mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "'You cannot say what it was?' "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really rooms." "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "You forget that I know nothing about it." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being rose-bushes. Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "He might." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley my special province." to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "Come in!" said he. "You forget that I know nothing about it." stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, death." Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor as the one I chose?' rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up how narrow had been my escape. "And leave your case unfinished?" In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally yards of it?' tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She there were one or two details which were new to me. But the whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "Certainly, madam." instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "But I have heard all that you have heard." his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "I have my revolver," said I. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "But it has twice been burgled." hour." The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the village inn over there?" had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your not come at once?" you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable individual and becomes the badge of a society." careless servant girl?" families. Now for the facts. conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I straighten it?" fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." questioning and rather startled gaze. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the forebodings. believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not bill, which interests me deeply." hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this six. Come in!" lumber-room." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of during which he might have communicated with his friend the "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for Watson," he said cordially. my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended conceal it?" Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There instituted." or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world."