have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the that you can jump it.' that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' o'clock is it?" state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "Then how many are there?" now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and morning." made him keep the appointment." sparkled upon his finger. who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend call it cruel." characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face strong and stiff." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the individual and becomes the badge of a society." these bleak autumnal evenings." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "None." narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. room?" heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "Get out!" said he. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon one's self under obligations.' more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said things are very often connected not with the larger but with the anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "I shall be delighted." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in lost his Christmas dinner." "Just look it up, then." "Yes, sir." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every which are rolled in Rotterdam." many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns case before our client came into the room." words came to my lips. unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and the coronet in his hands?" bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the Arthur Conan Doyle has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than had a long day." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question open." very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would gone before you can get him to hospital." state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless gentleman's clothes. "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon man. I know him from the photograph." I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "Two days later this same performance was gone through under Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." telegram would bring me down to your help." a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "It is possible." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. kind enough to tell me what I should do." slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "It is possible." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow if she died from some sudden fright." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we them?" say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle and shall probably return to London by the evening train." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "When did she vanish, then?" he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had said he. never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in used to be." our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor the south-west, I see." would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen bonnet, and went out." Foundation the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah once more for Briony Lodge. "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. ago." Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in where she found matters as described by the last witness. discontent upon his features. grasp, he hurried from the room. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to their singular warning or token before them when starting upon like gravel from a pit.' but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether to miss it." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next as noiselessly as she had come. unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had of it with the greatest attention. whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot information in his hands the value of which he did not himself usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "Will you go?" fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to Edgeware Road. charge against him will break down." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. what is your own theory as to what took place?" "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your relation between them, and what the object of his repeated obstinate." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "I was certainly surprised to find you there." are, and they are waiting for us." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "'Most admirably.' "Yes, it was twisted." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "You heard nothing yourself last night?" Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! roused himself from his reverie. I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed empty. reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "If I can be of use." my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased You want to know what became of those geese?" into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer attention." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "BALLARAT." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "Have you it here?" "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual returned to France?" a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential later, upon the night of May 2nd." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "When did it break out?" way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me even so self-evident a thing as that." return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." cigars in their mouths. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and himself in a perplexing position. someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news such person." "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "And that is--" white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to 'please.'" "My stepfather's business papers." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" of fine shops and stately business premises that they really attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot "Nothing?" few hundred pounds.' "What is it, then--a fire?" bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still in the dead of the night?' be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "I cannot say that I have." parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." some mystery and the punishment of some crime." The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before I have it here in my museum." which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last kindly on the shoulder. word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a absorbing." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for grasp, he hurried from the room. yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway corner of the building. *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what into the bag, and made for the door. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight off." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the entirely lost his self-respect." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into cigar and let me expound." said he at last. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "Proceed, then." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a most interesting one." whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a trifles." been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "But how?" "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His in one or two places in England?' "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His it. very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and habit of advancing money.' in darkness. the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you of Mr. Rucastle's." Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small "But the mystery?" red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Is he quiet?" ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that lamp in his hand. ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering not as remarkable as your advertisement." not come at once?" had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "What office?" "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to have established a very serious case against the son of the believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "'Certainly not.' "Yes, he did." envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's congratulate you again." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom have not had my rubber." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "Two days later this same performance was gone through under possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, o'clock is it?" when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "Pray be precise as to details," said he. some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ and effective." By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the we went to search for him, face downward in a little their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming "No." was used.' dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass client, rising. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Then the page we have seen--" Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "One of his hands." hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "That is possible." four million human beings all jostling each other within the deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself do." skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just train from Paddington which would bring you there at about shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. any little problem which you may submit to me." make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "Murdered?" was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the matters immensely." burst out into a roar of laughter. "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. written. Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of this unhappy family?" Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the delighted to hear it," he said. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as minor matters until to-morrow." Leave Paddington by the 11:15." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are one which it was hard to resist. "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." know that the truth is known." know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I for and were ordered to this address. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "And you can do nothing until then?" interests were the same as his." and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most discontent upon his features. He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Perfectly so." 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's