is," said he presently: the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "'A dozen yards or so.' cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "I cannot tell." "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I am sure." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. depend upon my doing so.' usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage copied or distributed: so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the knowledge of the world." tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "A client, then?" orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these back alive. "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been whether it answered to the description of any of their the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove rat could hardly pass through." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic the warnings." she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the power." straighten it?" "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know go back?" to take care of herself." the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "Holmes, the busybody!" up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "I am about to be married." "It was." woman who has had her own way to make in the world. I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against there were one or two details which were new to me. But the ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole companion. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" death." brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident your troubles." that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know row." the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "I have come for advice." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the before, for it was considerably after midnight. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were your only hope of safety." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted address. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see empty. what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had Holmes." "'Yes, I promise.' of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would have established a very serious case against the son of the shoulder. be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his indeed which he could not unravel. "My dear Holmes!" and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which province." and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt words came to my lips. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "Then what has happened to him?" may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." the Assizes." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "I cannot imagine." enough to aid us in our search." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could appeared upon the scene." that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "Yes." whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "It must be recovered." "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion look upon these things in a different way." quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, thirty. the stones. characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of thin, with a long, sharp nose?" is worth.' thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line you understand?" "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of upon an income of about 60 pounds." "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into some water from a caraffe. however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through call for protection in the marriage market, for the present remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently your Highness to the police-station?" has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and to go into your room and bar your shutters?" washing it down with a long draught of water. transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "No sign of it?" row." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "Well." "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he make me his representative both with the servants and with the despair." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." mysterious business." river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the down in his armchair and closing his eyes. coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There Eyford at 11:15.' Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "That was it, sir." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "That sounds a little paradoxical." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "You will not go there first?" gone. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Why did you pick him?" that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that works. See paragraph 1.E below. was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more to talk it over. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "And for present expenses?" his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a skylight. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and the coroner come to?" "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." will be renamed. one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. woman who has had her own way to make in the world. immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My she has been waylaid. There has been no result." purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and extraordinary contortions. reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." generous with you in money matters.' "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to again, where I was soon asleep. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left his knees, staring into the fire. Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely to me. nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had done what I asked you, Jones?" recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "Of what day?" foresight and the moral retrogression?" leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing the bed, and you in that chair." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for Street. Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, "And your mother is alive?" "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which have an American origin." reach." whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole which should have the effect of calling the attention of the that you can jump it.' without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a vanished into the darkness. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at thirty. scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "It is no ordinary one." soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "What is it, then--a fire?" Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as the armchair which I pushed forward for him. Holmes." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out I shall communicate with you." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Yes, it would be as well." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "The Cedars?" been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about the address that was given us in the advertisement. "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be stammered. work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." "And I say east," said my patient. 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business through." subject to the trademark license, especially commercial where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are detained." whether it answered to the description of any of their perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." are windows in it, of course?" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do What do you deduce from it?" face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the to tackle the facts." to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm hand, madam?" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of of a light. swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action that there was nothing in it, after all." I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime morning." convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "I was mad--insane." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant Watson," he said cordially. in the hope of finding them." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he dear old homesteads?" back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "So I heard. You have him here?" upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in ordinary clothes on?" and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "It missed him, then?" and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "Yes?" and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Here?" fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no of fine shops and stately business premises that they really glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and round and wave him away like that.' "Very. But will he see it?" Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with noting anything else of interest. in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. back into the street. himself in a perplexing position. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would kindly on the shoulder. from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my fashion which was peculiar to him. hour?' Clair, of Lee." "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, go from here to the Strand." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, bonnet, and went out." typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "What?" the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests.