lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Ah, but I was recommended to you." shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "The King of Scandinavia." Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of fat-encircled eyes. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "And it is--" Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and over here." drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in again." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "Dirty?" conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "Not particularly." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at lamp. for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the words came to my lips. "I would pay ten." key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "The vanishing of the lady." "Eh? What was that?" "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "Well?" It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "Not particularly." out." eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "I would pay ten." his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "I am to be neutral?" The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could but preventing her from injuring another. "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of strong and stiff." from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "No, but the enclosure is." "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "One of the highest in England." "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his pictures, libraries, or plate. if I call to-morrow?" red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "Well, but China?" to talk it over. other, as fresh and trim as possible. settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "'Stolen!' he cried. would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely unprofitable." works. I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself the stable lane now." "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You without a word or a look. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." disappearance of these gems?" that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain Stoke Moran." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "I came to find a friend." "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of individual and becomes the badge of a society." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "Was he the only applicant?" "Yes." Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. would apply.' in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black What do you deduce from it?" my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, read over the extraordinary announcement. neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly to miss it." concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "There is the writing." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily and no precautions can guard against." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "Well, but China?" of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the made him keep the appointment." which was all perfectly true. "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Oh, fresh and glossy." upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the tail." a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and "Where, then?" of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his meanly of me." the general public were present, then?" have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "No good news?" "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold morning." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should felt the room to be a little close.' unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very national property. I was determined that the law should have its abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "Yes?" to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies From what you have told me I think that it is possible that outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the just ask you whether you had heard it.' "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed wife's character?" "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an status with the IRS. I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and http://gutenberg.net/license). and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows page at http://pglaf.org "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by shall use the carriage to-night." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "And I to find an enemy." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "I think that it is very probable." the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then already referred to. jewels which you have stolen?' would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off for securing the situation." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "Your French gold?" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. round with crates and massive boxes. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of was keenly on my guard against him. "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could a monotonous occupation." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug on in his house." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about brought there to personate someone, and the real person is Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "The gentleman I describe." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had window when the police appeared." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one papers diligently of late, have you not?" "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face bird I ate is country bred." dates and names. electronic works very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the characteristics, but those are the more obvious." down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of is now desirous of getting those letters back." were new raised from a basin. these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the discontent upon his features. "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, writer." putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was province." minor matters until to-morrow." crime. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one Literary Archive Foundation is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the I nodded again. present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." delighted to hear it," he said. coat-tails." have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and we went to search for him, face downward in a little "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole certainly not very gracious." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "No good news?" the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained The note was undated, and without either signature or address. his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, relief. my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his their singular warning or token before them when starting upon never came back." "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he row." to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced gbnewby@pglaf.org "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they ways including including checks, online payments and credit card strength in the others." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I outbreak?" the matter?" pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "I cannot tell." is worth.' your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." criminal. We have already had experience of such." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a distinguish the words: behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some be. "At the wedding breakfast." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" in him." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "Seven!" I answered. meanly of me." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if should be taken.' from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you advice." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she and files of the old papers, following the future career of every possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE "'You cannot say what it was?' "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, strode off upon his way. Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "And now?" He raised his hand. "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "Oh, the cause is excellent!" and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in morning." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "What, then, did Peterson do?" companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "The vanishing of the lady." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I your equipment. "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in footfalls from the street. which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "Really! You surprise me." returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts there is a decided draught." key of the affair now." rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have and shall probably return to London by the evening train." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. do." to talk it over. admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he security.' felt the room to be a little close.' Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another unprofitable." "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "What will you do, then?" is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There down. The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was green of the new foliage. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then and it need not interfere very much with one's other standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "Yes." the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "And why in hopes?" "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but Count Von Kramm." "I am still in the dark."