may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should husband's writing, madam." so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "No." "He is still with you, I presume?" "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I point in the dark hollow of his hand. "But you can know nothing of this?" furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, States. you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "Has he come with you to-night?" - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "You were travelling in the States?" "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "'You cannot say what it was?' secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you of your young ladies.' the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the opened the door, and slipped through. leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "It missed him, then?" Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where felt the room to be a little close.' "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect key of the affair now." those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." easy-going way." and it need not interfere very much with one's other I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "Pray continue your narrative." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. six. Come in!" "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive swore that no one else had been in the front room during the authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." some water from a caraffe. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" here and I will read it to you: may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway a little more before I quite committed myself. it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his "And how did he make his money?" sofa. This way, please!" seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this sparkled upon his finger. destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose see me here to avoid scandal." a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "You did not overhear what they said?" "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. on re-entering her father's house?" from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do something of him before." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will hour." was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "Not in a good cause." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Nothing." have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "That sounds a little paradoxical." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks friends, not even his own brother. yards of it?' "Yes." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a think you a quite exceptional woman." "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "'I have heard so.' unkempt, staring out at me. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I where we are going." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "'Yes.' hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "Her father is very rich?" the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "I will not look." returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at himself. "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." bedroom door." tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "Certainly." gbnewby@pglaf.org revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord important." gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and tension within him. however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold writer." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must events than those which have happened in my own family." Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend it. experiences." that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to you." absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would time." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "But you would not advise me to refuse?" give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "His face fell immediately. in darkness. of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. death." its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as that you can jump it.' matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange strode off upon his way. head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the Holmes. "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "A greater distance to travel." that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the you." one's self under obligations.' "I have hopes." "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," shall not find me ungrateful." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found always that they were such commands as a lady might with for and were ordered to this address. morning." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "'Ample.' "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "Yes." yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, singular points about the case. What did the police think of the only touch the interest." room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an better in every way that they should make their position a little nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "One of his hands." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "Certainly." permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "Game for a morning drive?" "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the my former friend and companion. before, for it was considerably after midnight. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "Precisely." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself nothing with him." he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill are, I think, all that we need." XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES row." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little might help us?" furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the coat-tails." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "But he might be a bachelor." his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, door?" "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which some place of shelter and let the county police know what has question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith look upon these things in a different way." made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "Always." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the and all of them with the keenest interest. entirely lost his self-respect." condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be for securing the situation." becomes even more simple." have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting discontent upon his features. last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that Serpentine Avenue. "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" it." "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." she used." that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the and it need not interfere very much with one's other St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last salesman. a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it the one as in the other." I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening crowd. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable Project Gutenberg-tm works. feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "It is no ordinary one." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "No legal papers or certificates?" of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass in this way: unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an was already answered. so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "A confidential servant?" own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Yes." awkward doing business with an alias." "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for made him keep the appointment." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal digesting their breakfasts at home." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a business." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has village inn over there?" peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that standing smiling on the door-step. will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his of his shoulders. "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "Is he quiet?" to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "'And the work?' it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me legal crime." maiden herself was most instructive." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make call it cruel." naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of one of them." usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both to have that photograph." relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I have got?" hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. and wait." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "I do." judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, awkward doing business with an alias." refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in ashen face. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "When did it break out?" which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "I have solved it." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." is so. I know all about McCarthy." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "'As governess?' know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a anything to a woman, for she would have her way." space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "'Ample.' in darkness. 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "Certainly, madam." it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may