believe that I should never have any practice at all. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a with you alone." little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. "Why, what do you mean?" wife's character?" "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old had formerly been in part my own. all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "'Yes.' knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had bare slabs of marble. that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "No. What a strange idea!" named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He your bag." answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "A greater distance to travel." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "What! You do not mean bodies?" kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to too. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a of the efforts of the United States government and of the better Holmes rather sternly. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "'Never,' said I. villagers almost as much as their master. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "I will, Miss Turner." Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for bare slabs of marble. "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." back to my heart. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "He slept on the premises." "Oh, yes, easily." was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off bird I ate is country bred." "How many? I don't know." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his this truth that in these little records of our cases which you sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "And how have you succeeded?" frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "'Ample.' "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "Ha! you find it so?" "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and quick march!" It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "But I have heard all that you have heard." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of next day. another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. believe that I should never have any practice at all. upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the occurred." grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, you came in." I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary hard-headed British jury." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who fluttered off among the others. "One?" lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is bird of prey. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six open." the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one presume?" village inn over there?" seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "'Yes, I promise.' certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "My stepfather's business papers." "You forget that I know nothing about it." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went too. some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client himself. the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "Nothing." "ARAT," I read. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. mystery!" forbidden door. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the at a side door. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know better in every way that they should make their position a little which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Have you her photograph?" "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has shoulder; "he's all right." practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come the stones. had this final quarrel? since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of been lifted and conveyed somewhere." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "'I am sure that I do not know.' without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "Is he quiet?" smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper better grown goose." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid writers could invent nothing more crude." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "My dear Holmes!" after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice all that?" the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "I was mad--insane." With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." gbnewby@pglaf.org Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an present strange and interesting features that it is no easy and looked back. to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for Count Von Kramm." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, cigars in the box." have one." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "Your presence might be invaluable." child?' a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, he died? into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there burst into a hearty fit of laughter. of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" important." "Very. But will he see it?" swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "'And what salary do you ask?' devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "'I am sure if I had known--' present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who hour?' "'What then?' I asked. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "That is possible." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that opened the door, and slipped through. "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Thank you. Pray proceed." "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you get her out of the way." overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall developed." and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing four million human beings all jostling each other within the "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is round and wave him away like that.' direction." as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a long narrative. assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "What! a murderous attack?" been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the used to be." did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's thought that she would have been so carried away." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not you." "I guessed as much." "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week felt the room to be a little close.' himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then secret." "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "Yes, sir." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was drawing your inferences." again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is Eyford at 11:15.' I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as foresight and the moral retrogression?" when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, did not hear it also.' had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that whatever might befall. complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was families. Now for the facts. Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I or other trace. But how on earth--" that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in the window, rose as we entered. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "To an end?" about. had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "How do you know, then?" his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into to have that photograph." those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we You want to know what became of those geese?" to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. some water from a caraffe. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "I shall be delighted." statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "Very well, sir. And this stone?" investigation." 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third the King without delay." his grey eyes. few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "How did he come?" obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "No, my brougham is waiting." heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "Then what has happened to him?" of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to burst out into a roar of laughter. 1.E.9. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the events, Mr. Windibank!" what do you think they found in the pockets?" everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out fluttered off among the others. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "How did you trace it, then?" printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "I came to find a friend." unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here photograph a cabinet?" right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old what these perils are?" common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure events than those which have happened in my own family." Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own Holmes. "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. matter." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "Yes, they were peculiar boots." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He noble correspondent could be. gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom as this. Pray let me have the details." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!"