"You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "That is unusual in a young girl." considering the formidable letters which were received by himself of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "'What then?' I asked. "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "'What then?' I asked. treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go seem to you to be relevant or not." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, "No, I think that I'll take it." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our chance." the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "'There is a drive, then?' word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, dramatic, in fact." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "What! Had he lost his wife?" and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the make me his representative both with the servants and with the "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my business." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. The summons was a brief and urgent one. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. few hundred pounds.' been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "I have solved it." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be to go into your room and bar your shutters?" beyond words. "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; "What office?" three of the beryls in it, was missing. "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you of the one which your family is now devouring." abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they all that?" "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell records." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already What do you deduce from it?" out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. already referred to. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for respectable self." certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "Breckinridge is his name." But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "But I have heard all that you have heard." "You did not overhear what they said?" "'Certainly,' I answered. lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of London for the present?" better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "And your father? Did you tell him?" fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "That you are never beaten." ourselves in the office." began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "No. What a strange idea!" "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, paper in the air. enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "The decline of his fortunes, then?" me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. to surprise her." near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a suggested at once that there must be a communication between the him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." them?" "But your client--" rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "And your mother is alive?" firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "That is unusual in a young girl." "A call for help, you thought?" have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of the coroner come to?" "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "VIOLET HUNTER." He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "You have but to name it." But Holmes shook his head gravely. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Yes." THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE to tackle the facts." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "When did she vanish, then?" "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own the Assizes." "Yes, sir." Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "I should be immensely obliged to you." still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "That is also quite modern," said the lady. cigar and let me expound." many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns you do it in twenty minutes!' the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "'What, the red-headed man?' There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will call you and give you the chance." "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' from you?" gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which kindly on the shoulder. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately to-night?' Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill there was no need for father to know." a room. creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, unclasping of his long thin hands. the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he true." It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "'As governess?' While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "I cannot tell." at once, for I have only half an hour." "But who is he?" retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "In which, sir?" "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in matter." "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening that the gas is not laid on in his house?" there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the unprofitable." and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "And Irene Adler?" of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "Quite so." "Not him." now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal outside." life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which III. in his hands." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "Perhaps we may make them less so." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "'Yes, sir.' shoulder; "he's all right." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "And when will you call?" "He is dead," cried several voices. "You horrify me." "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you companion imperturbably. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Quite so." hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "I was certainly surprised to find you there." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" very morning of my second wedding." have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to before the coroner and the police-court." 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check *** START: FULL LICENSE *** think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, is now desirous of getting those letters back." Eyford." been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." little trying to do so much typewriting?" "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I really the only notable feature about the thing." glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor laugh and put his lips to my ear. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could heavily into it. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal grasp, he hurried from the room. distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. do you make of it all?" bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. him nearly every evening." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large said he, "my real name is James Ryder." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, speckled band?" more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel are, and they are waiting for us." form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be some terrible trap for her." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is me upon any point which I do not make clear." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, thought that she would have been so carried away." could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which entirely lost his self-respect." "So I heard. You have him here?" "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the discontent upon his features. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the the coronet in his hands?" and looked back. It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "How often?" was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "'About the same.' One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "Thank you. And your address?" threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had questioning and rather startled gaze. address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "Thank you. And your address?" affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" Edgeware Road. can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off remarked. "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "Indeed! Whose, then?" habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "And how did you verify them?" "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On asked with his eyes open. reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a most important business. It is probable that he will be away all that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "Entirely." "'And the work?' night.' said he. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from country, and eventually married, without anyone having a We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her States. Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from the dangers which encompass me." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four is a common subject for conversation. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's narrative." there were so many in the whole country as were brought together coat-tails." "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a down from London to inquire more deeply into it." what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called 'please.'" bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "From his hat?" "I see many objections to any such theory." "He said too much." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we brought there to personate someone, and the real person is very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' and the colonel ushered me in. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. that the gas is not laid on in his house?" smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "Ten will be early enough." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New me. You must get home instantly and act." Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William respectable self." it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to to miss it." screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "And what then?" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "I would give my fortune to have them back." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so."