before the coroner and the police-court." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "If so, much may have happened between." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of mystery." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that more solid." and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "Yes, only one." pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." your own bird, so if you wish--" Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the occupations.' "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "So it appears." I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment garden below. can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." into her hand at the door and which lured her within their Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and I held the little printed slip to the light. regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked seen the man in the road." guilty parties." and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather gone. Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by "My last client of the sort was a king." he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "'Never,' said I. into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' kind enough to tell me what I should do." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it already referred to. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." Foundation problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in later, upon the night of May 2nd." best detective that ever lived. brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "Did he not advertise?" "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as hair?' "What will you do, then?" "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were open." "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a with you?" The telegram which we eventually received came late one night chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been "Your presence might be invaluable." morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "It is to him that this trophy belongs." the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a papers diligently of late, have you not?" The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it and effective." but preventing her from injuring another. banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and wanted for ourselves." and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge them, and came down just as you departed. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be his grey eyes. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the be sorry for having acted so harshly." his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "Yes, that is the Crown." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a that?' running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by pierced for earrings?" said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's lips." and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the knowledge of the world." from the brougham. "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to come either from the window or the door. My attention was on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may that he has suffered." a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his when you have done it." "I will try. What is it?" events than those which have happened in my own family." of the vacancies.' "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. me upon any point which I do not make clear." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "I cannot tell." discontent upon his features. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you you?" "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to putting in the horse. vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of disappearance of these gems?" "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "The vanishing of the lady." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "And what did you learn from him?" poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of I have it here in my museum." nothing of it?" light and attacked it." though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent strong reason behind." "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you throat." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened this unhappy family?" the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "Yes." "I beg pardon." depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "'Yes.' "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters whole matter to your consideration." brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. fashion which was peculiar to him. note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I not within a twentieth part of the market price." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I have hopes." "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely possible that we could bring him back to her? intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "But his left-handedness." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on gbnewby@pglaf.org faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, Stoke Moran." "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "Yes, from Horsham." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in sake, don't!" that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled along the entire front of the house, with three long windows subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "Dr. Becher's." Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that he. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders swore that no one else had been in the front room during the in his hands." "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "And when will you call?" with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey careless servant girl?" called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "Where to?" confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "You saw the ventilator, too?" "Why, it's a dummy," said he. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were she has been waylaid. There has been no result." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, cigars in the box." Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my again." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "On the contrary, this is the right side." "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is Holmes' room. foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of to surprise her." the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another Mary, has deserted me." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "Tired-looking or fresh?" "Not in the least." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, to that open window." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that indeed which he could not unravel. walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have trifles." 'please.'" however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; and the church but not where the lady lived." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the in his hands." some place of shelter and let the county police know what has going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest his fortune, and I went back to pa. the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in very peculiar words of the dying woman?" the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "You heard nothing yourself last night?" prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and strode off upon his way. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "'Tell me all about it,' said I. course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "What, then?" "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "Not I." gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "Stolen." house for five minutes.' his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, direction." "Do you go out much in society?" his face which made him a very different person to the round, "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an strength of mind to control. to that open window." characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "'Yes, sir.' in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. just ask you whether you had heard it.' civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate noting anything else of interest. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "No." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied remarked. one of them." "And your father? Did you tell him?" are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "And Miss Sutherland?" really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before later, upon the night of May 2nd." VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "I am about to be married." up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have that the gas is not laid on in his house?" open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital your co-operation." information in his hands the value of which he did not himself rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the off." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. "What do you make of that, Watson?" Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the