avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to is now desirous of getting those letters back." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the not interfere, come what may. You understand?" as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can strength in the others." horse could go." "You have but to name it." "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "I was afraid that you were engaged." but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "That is easily got." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most Pope's Court, Fleet Street." long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "I will try. What is it?" true." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you now. It seems that there had been some informality about their I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "'And the work?' adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his But Holmes shook his head gravely. "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "And who is her maid?" stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon Lee, in the county of Kent." works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to were new raised from a basin. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' good for you to do.' "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "Yes." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" hands. with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, himself. "Really! You surprise me." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at towards the blaze. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "Very well, sir. And this stone?" the best of training." before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "Thank you. And your address?" "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line seven miles from Eyford Station.' greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE other, as fresh and trim as possible. with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their there was no need for father to know." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "That also I could fathom." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "What can it mean?" I gasped. with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a could gather together that I was able to avert another public turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the look dissatisfied." side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his bore every mark of being an average commonplace British poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I you." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "And leave your case unfinished?" He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "He disappeared so suddenly." just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the it right.' whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of me where it went to?" there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average and the church but not where the lady lived." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad is so. I know all about McCarthy." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. all that?" notes," he said. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so outside." with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "'Certainly,' I answered. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons copied or distributed: "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, conclusions. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I them, and came down just as you departed. keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. Again Holmes raved in the air. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." do.' have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who guilty one." union?" salesman. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Surrey." did not hear it also.' lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon take the flies, but not before." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the brought there to personate someone, and the real person is McCarthy." tell him that I know him to be innocent." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "By all means." not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism not, dad?" she asked. "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an and shall probably return to London by the evening train." although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "Perhaps we may make them less so." corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual when your master had gone out." own family. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything me." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, three fields round his house, and there he would take his test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came indeed which he could not unravel. disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "'Very good.' cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "And Miss Sutherland?" "I shall most certainly do so." been." done what I asked you, Jones?" fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, fattened it expressly for you.' card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it you understand?" threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his question you as to those details which seem to me to be most outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing and laid it on the table. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the fish-monger and a tide-waiter." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "But how will you look?" "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her http://www.gutenberg.net charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United cigars in their mouths. this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." mystery may be cleared along those lines." she to prove their authenticity?" our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at depend upon my doing so.' Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "And it is--" much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a come either from the window or the door. My attention was cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "I was mad--insane." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "No, my brougham is waiting." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a sneer upon his pale face. him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "You saw the ventilator, too?" toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "Do you go out much in society?" was it brought him the coronet? the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "Nothing." all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, second." "Yes, there are nearly always some there." to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a investigation." "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. is a common subject for conversation. you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what pity, because in other respects you would really have done very errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "Did he not advertise?" his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' yards of it?' has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to ashen face. after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, of the vacancies.' companion quietly. "So I have heard." dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "It's nothing of the kind." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "On the contrary, this is the right side." present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has maiden herself was most instructive." "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, The events in question occurred in the early days of my of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "I shall most certainly do so." this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Eh? What was that?" schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young for and were ordered to this address. King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out "'Yes.' of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously have established a very serious case against the son of the This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than the Red-headed League." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and most interesting one." we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most village inn over there?" wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the most important business. It is probable that he will be away all Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a mystery!" made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: observed. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after all that?" He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "'Is purely nominal.' coroner's jury." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Very well, sir. And this stone?" little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three "I was certainly surprised to find you there." fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an seen the man in the road." crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have and capable of preserving a secret.' "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks cause to be." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. at my own good fortune. story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something that there was nothing in it, after all." blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has acquaintance?" happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat you?' go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "Why? What do you mean?" Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. peculiar to him. "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon have accepted such a situation. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. galvanised. "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the could not have written that. It is the German who is so "I shall see you at Horsham, then?"