the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "Well, it is a possible supposition." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." http://gutenberg.net/license). "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she signal between you and your father? would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Not in a good cause." that I may have something better before very many minutes are ceremony." tell me that you intended to go into harness." and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We I shall communicate with you." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a the running down." undoubtedly my uncle's." just ask you whether you had heard it.' at my own good fortune. to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which his forehead." for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "If I can be of use." "So I am. Very much so." I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Precisely." I nodded to show that I had heard. seem to you to be relevant or not." "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, to Leatherhead. The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of then?" of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. with her." "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "May I see it?" from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to ashen face. room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do seven miles from Eyford Station.' impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "I guessed as much." not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much photograph?" back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over I held the little printed slip to the light. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was But Holmes shook his head gravely. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "Then, how do you know?" "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is Foundation "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of business." the general public were present, then?" closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head awkward doing business with an alias." "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a him, that man would not have given me such complete information Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than cheerful." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been bell. Holmes whistled. could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a case before our client came into the room." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so lamp. before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is believe that I should never have any practice at all. lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while been able to understand it, in a very few words. "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents morning." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not I think that I could be of assistance to you." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "I should wish to." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "When did it break out?" "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "It is solved." our word." allusion to a rat. "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Will you go?" you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the already been minutely examined." stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the envelope. "Just look it up, then." was a lad." door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had business in the City. She little knew what. "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What all-comprehensive glances. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I your most interesting statement." "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "So I am. Very much so." "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a gone. of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "It must be recovered." License. You must require such a user to return or leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "Then he might have called to you?" Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." neither fascinating nor artistic." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord "But your client--" "I would give my fortune to have them back." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. You can understand that this register and diary may implicate Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and o'clock is it?" always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the shadow pass over his face as I spoke. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the I approached. called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were breakfast." known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "We must sit without light. He would see it through the I have it here in my museum." shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" to me. "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall telegram would bring me down to your help." voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "One of the highest in England." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "What have you to say now?" "None." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in and the church but not where the lady lived." south, for the country is more deserted there." me." "No." "You have compromised yourself seriously." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled lamp. into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "And leave your case unfinished?" "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. Heh?' "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "Indeed! Whose, then?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. The summons was a brief and urgent one. act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are 'please.'" treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his interest. They are important, you understand, without being light and attacked it." details." jewels which you have stolen?' sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "Indeed! Whose, then?" swore that no one else had been in the front room during the such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; Mary, has deserted me." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong held up the lantern and gazed about him. standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "Entirely." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." what I may call a really hard day's work." the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to children over to America with him, so that I found myself without him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face and I shall be with you presently." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" I. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I electronic works hair?' and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these which it had come upon my father." predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America society." fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "I beg pardon." instituted." and inquire as to the address." was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." the coronet in his hand?" from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the a little more before I quite committed myself. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any sooner or later she must fall a victim. certainly do as you advise." "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. skylight. know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "And you don't know his address?" were wasted." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had followed. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "Well, but China?" upon the white wrist. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further question," said Holmes, smiling. us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Did you become engaged then?" passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with during which he might have communicated with his friend the carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored hour?' made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "And why in hopes?" "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people indeed which he could not unravel. foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "None. Neville wrote those words." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "'What then?' I asked. "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the "About a month then." through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you very peculiar words of the dying woman?" the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "Very much so." and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither his cane at the bell-pull. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, shall not find me ungrateful." who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is events, Mr. Windibank!" and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner again on its way. another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "I fear not." "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad entirely devoid of interest." morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I cannot tell." "'A dozen yards or so.' 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and "Why serious?" them, and came down just as you departed. signal between you and your father? down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham new acquaintance to Baker Street. been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door deduce something from that?" who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "Of what?" indeed happy." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "You horrify me!" days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated your most interesting statement." "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "Stoke Moran?" said he. twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could be.' we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, which should have the effect of calling the attention of the be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief you in your example." deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. examine." "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." of his shoulders. "You don't mind breaking the law?" province." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Nor running a chance of arrest?" the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the throat." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that true." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." trying to your nerves." to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed his fortune, and I went back to pa. "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I and the colonel ushered me in. "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than conduct the inquiry." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, a good hundred miles off by now." Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a laugh and put his lips to my ear. thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "By no means." more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself