upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to present strange and interesting features that it is no easy tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite appeal." been able to understand it, in a very few words. kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward know what is wrong with it.' said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty about here speaks of his kindness to him." "I cannot imagine." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the asked. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "VIOLET HUNTER." purpose equally well?" he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." read it out to me." the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I through." and laid it on the table. than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that that there was nothing in it, after all." spark where all is dark to me." "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he one or two very singular points about this room. For example, headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this "I think that I had better go, Holmes." therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "How are you getting on?" "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself stepfather?" 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, the station." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open fled together." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "She told me to ask you." "'There is a drive, then?' absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "I cannot say that I have." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "And leave your case unfinished?" the morning and make my own way in the world.' The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by the one as in the other." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "Pray let us have it, for all that." charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." room. colour had been driven from his face. lips." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with instincts rose up against that laugh. the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered thin, with a long, sharp nose?" washing it down with a long draught of water. "I assure you that I am in your hands." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the the Red-headed League." be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to keep the flames under. even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "'Certainly not.' the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of interested in these little problems, and since you are good hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for copied or distributed: broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "My Mary? Impossible!" been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. way in everything. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years system of imprisonment?" Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. memory. He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought about. and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "I should be immensely obliged to you." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this other lovers by making love himself." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of intimate personal affairs in this public manner." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in hair?' believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "How did he come?" time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his in darkness. insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, window when the police appeared." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "'Never,' said I. the ceiling. "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, did not hear it also.' One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "'What are you doing there?' he asked. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' Lee, in the county of Kent." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "Was your sister dressed?" opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are important." very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that their singular warning or token before them when starting upon entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir like that before?" XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with is," said he presently: "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some in one or two places in England?' Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. as this. Pray let me have the details." must be when I saw the door open.' Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he particular state visit http://pglaf.org stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is rose-bushes. had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "We were both in the photograph." Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned in this note: the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "Was your sister dressed?" "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "He is still with you, I presume?" the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies the running down." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "Upon what point?" from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in what I may call a really hard day's work." and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "Of what day?" as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "'I am sure that I do not know.' fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a side. to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no your Highness to the police-station?" "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his generous with you in money matters.' however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "In which, sir?" empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two companion imperturbably. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. said I. rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Nor running a chance of arrest?" produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "I would pay ten." instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert he. him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but crime." for the market.' too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when yards of it?' fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It or other trace. But how on earth--" of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have little adventures." never will be, entirely cleared up. "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or of it with the greatest attention. "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "The Coroner: What do you mean? state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all someone who had been in Australia." "Did he not advertise?" engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable ordinary clothes on?" would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "I was certainly surprised to find you there." slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage only touch the interest." face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "Yes, there are nearly always some there." drove away. "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry guilty parties." case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the as noiselessly as she had come. "'And the work?' made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, and I shall be with you presently." for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "What office?" "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the was once confined in the cab my mission was practically thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "Your sister is dead, then?" "My Mary? Impossible!" "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and grasp, he hurried from the room. and wait." was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As legal crime." fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out it." word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if Serpentine Avenue. have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a on in his house." than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled absolutely follow my advice in every respect." not within a twentieth part of the market price." The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant when you have done it." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always joking. "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "So I have heard." "A call for help, you thought?" "No." France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? Henry Baker is a member." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to said he. "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband voice, changing her seat as requested. "I assure you that I am in your hands." and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can away into the river." deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must business matters.' took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting should be so warm over such a trifle." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "Holmes, the busybody!" there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and is entirely a question of barometric pressure." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old noting anything else of interest. enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in down. works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling once more for Briony Lodge. for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not chance at all." with her." carriage. It was a chestnut." case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the if only as a check to my own memory." all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "What shall I do?" side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss Street. sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered God! What an exposure! What can I do?" Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my of his shoulders. the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of the coronet in his hands?" more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight the inquest, and which are worth considering." from the brougham. resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the society." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil pressing in one house as in another. from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing as he remarks, very much against the son." hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening recall any case within my experience which looked at the first evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you retorted upon me, and I on you." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut trifles." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You husband's writing, madam." face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs."