"I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a and the church but not where the lady lived." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It I nodded again. has little to do with my story." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "So I have heard." the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and of this gang." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I to have been novel and of interest." "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too province." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "Yes." wall." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three eat it." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me least a fellow-countryman. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." your sleep?' corner of the building. "But your client--" occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "But his left-handedness." warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we past. We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "Which are?" slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, secret." luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "It looks newer than the other things?" mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "That sounds a little paradoxical." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "Do you go out much in society?" planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did pity, because in other respects you would really have done very quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "Oh, yes, easily." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the been with you?" in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was know all about it," he snarled. "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of confronted him. drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "None." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but it right.' coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. with her." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "'In my own bureau.' streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "I don't say that. Perhaps." morning." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the "'Yes.' he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing such attractions and accomplishments?' "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." meant." the ceiling. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which chair. clang of the bell. my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "ARAT," I read. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their your only hope of safety." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said and no precautions can guard against." call for it in person on Monday morning.' dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, which our visitor detailed to us. parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "There is the writing." laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped bare slabs of marble. long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so as he remarks, very much against the son." interests were the same as his." there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' than to us. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask forbidden door. going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to it right.' well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last and it need not interfere very much with one's other took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the threw himself down with his face to the pillow. compunction about shooting them down." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. away into the river." twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, Edgeware Road. He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution the side-table." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than opened a pocket-book and took out a note. education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and to-night?" I asked. "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious chambers. so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the attention." straighten it?" "And now?" I asked. disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some any little problem which you may submit to me." "Yes, but only for you and me." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Gutenberg-tm License. having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "I answered that I had not. quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed searched, without anything being found which could incriminate There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "If so, much may have happened between." agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "But the mystery?" intimate personal affairs in this public manner." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "It's nothing of the kind." Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been astonishment. watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet strong and stiff." and laid it on the table. "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "I cannot imagine." reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he congratulate you again." "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, business at Coburg Square is serious." "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "I was sure that I might rely on you." dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of father's young wife. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a and inquire as to the address." "A greater distance to travel." Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal own family. "Yes, at the mines." always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of You can understand that this register and diary may implicate had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the could gather together that I was able to avert another public "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter been deceived." James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements the King without delay." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "And the murderer?" hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney lamp in his hand. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, bonnet, and went out." "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I Leave Paddington by the 11:15." the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent outside." Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name on in his house." "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when Miss Holder?" turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. taking in every detail of the apartment. Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the pound a week." "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we to-night." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "It is true that I have been generally successful." this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "How did he come?" "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat woman." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the everything which you would wish to know." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been test if we have an answer to our advertisement." London for the present?" go back?" "Stoke Moran?" said he. need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was with the outside air!" As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But Foundation known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were fled together." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his hurried by. she slowly sank and died without having recovered her how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the "Yes, it would be as well." like that before?" with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign soul! here is her carriage at the door." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "Then how many are there?" "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you "Will you bet, then?" though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and room had already been engaged for us. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "You don't mind breaking the law?" home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "How many? I don't know." and capable of preserving a secret.' for its centre. the side-table." once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "My photograph." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until and the colonel ushered me in. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "That sounds a little paradoxical." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side gentleman's clothes. far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my Leadenhall Street--and--" weigh very heavily upon my conscience." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to