came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am and the colonel ushered me in. profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "No." collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might Holmes. 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" sound at heart." come either from the window or the door. My attention was return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been rooms." Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have congenial hunt. and prosperity to your house. Good-night." having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the became a certainty. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "It was an hour's good drive." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help asked. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault the bottom.' insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is *** START: FULL LICENSE *** Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, coat-tails." most interesting one." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" "Witness: Nothing definite. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." My friend smiled. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to cheerful." with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six strength in the others." down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" than was visible to me." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked perplexity from it to my illustrious client. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and for and were ordered to this address. "Then what has happened to him?" memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "And what did you learn from him?" gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial heavily into it. distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than bears upon the case?" foot. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. and the colonel ushered me in. satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "Game for a morning drive?" should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." I approached. where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "I have seen the police." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "Perfectly so." have got?" minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting has little to do with my story." suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a certainly not very gracious." deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer in the dead of the night?' remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "Very much so." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "He might." charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had begun to whiten, even as mine has." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is some city in a dream. into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the Eyford." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not obstinate." least a most suspicious remark." material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "I will get her to show me." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "It is his hat." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm rose-bushes. no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young conversation I have gathered that they have been married about I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the emerged. animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who from you?" a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where unprecedented a position." already referred to. stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "But the mystery?" public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed the matter." became a certainty. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and politicians who had been sent down from the North. some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "'Certainly not.' "Then he might have called to you?" four million human beings all jostling each other within the statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing nights." "You don't mind breaking the law?" and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not have been better. It is all right." "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see manager. John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that But Holmes shook his head gravely. puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "What office?" thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the locked. things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "And for present expenses?" abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This what these perils are?" of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to must compliment you." "You have but to name it." To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "He slept on the premises." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. III. Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "Yes, I have one waiting." "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a lectures into a series of tales." "At what time?" an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "Yes." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the begun to whiten, even as mine has." massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare his fortune, and I went back to pa. interests were the same as his." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "Nothing." "By no means." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "What! Had he lost his wife?" so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "And the cigar-holder?" "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable sufficient punishment." "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" pressing in one house as in another. think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "But to whom?" behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I closing the door. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of again on its way. made him keep the appointment." fatally injured? "And from a noble client?" "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "And leave your case unfinished?" "There are none." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The did not hear it also.' of note-paper. It read in this fashion: Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "And is that all?" "But I have heard all that you have heard." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "And you don't know his address?" 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "No bad?" myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is over here." "I shall be delighted." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "Was the window open?" "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "The Coroner: What do you mean? have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "Now, then, what's the last entry?" with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled Project Gutenberg-tm works. "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "Did he not advertise?" visitors." "And when will you call?" I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if indeed happy." before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I a monotonous occupation." "Not social, then?" "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "You have but to name it." we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the murdered man." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose place no limit on the sum I may draw." wanted for ourselves." my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and villagers almost as much as their master. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here ceremony." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the that he will be back before evening." it." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and the best of training." "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "Do you receive much company?" he asked. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" in his hands." everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "But your client--" pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the morning." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "At half-wages, in fact." I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "Was the window open?" "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "That is easily got." in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread look dissatisfied." acquaintance?" read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, yards of it?' "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which *** START: FULL LICENSE *** tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "ARAT," I read. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "Here?" broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper should be taken.' top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "Your sister is dead, then?" When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of it." 1.F. The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay I held the little printed slip to the light. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for horse could go." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "But how did you gain them?" smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, DAMAGE. lost his Christmas dinner." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all and effective." tapping his fingers upon the table. his cane at the bell-pull. may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every meant." my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line matter." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang discontent upon his features. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused of note-paper. It read in this fashion: I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." business?" "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." the inquest, and which are worth considering." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. a little more before I quite committed myself. light and attacked it." points in connection with it which never have been, and probably problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it the coroner come to?" pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be empty. more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "She will not sell." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "About a month then." chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so room. me." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling existence." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "Yes, sir." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining during which he might have communicated with his friend the unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. business in the City. She little knew what. "I think that it is very probable." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid