to you." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he know what is wrong with it.' always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has "Yes, there are nearly always some there." brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "Seven!" I answered. "It looks newer than the other things?" not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, This is what he says: must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own sparkled upon his finger. client, rising. off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell ashen face. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "Eh? What was that?" "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, this Miss Turner." accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the papers diligently of late, have you not?" feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that it. Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take absorbing." "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow the very letters. But what is this written above them?' come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "Won't it ring?" interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see throat." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He himself to tell his story. black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" dates and names. "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility drove away. tell him that I know him to be innocent." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "A call for help, you thought?" so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "May I see it?" said I. answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "VIOLET HUNTER." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for mystery." which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever of Mr. Rucastle's." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of a suggestive one." an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' asked. "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have and the colonel ushered me in. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." upon the sideboard." "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a is," said he presently: defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." in a very precise fashion." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the him to be an active member of the medical profession." quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked fled together." one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative photograph a cabinet?" hereditary King of Bohemia." asked. "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two not within a twentieth part of the market price." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that away into the river." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the infinite languor in his face. "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "What do you mean?" very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I all that?" The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and despair." soul! here is her carriage at the door." was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "Yes, it was twisted." He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" outside." I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he asked with his eyes open. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin DISSOLVED. labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "None. Neville wrote those words." but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, eavesdroppers?' twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his article?" foot. go back?" whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation "I don't say that. Perhaps." most interesting one." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated photograph?" my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and already been minutely examined." first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "What?" estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you indiscretion." "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! Pool. hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Nothing." threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Seven!" I answered. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "'In my own bureau.' him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet "What can it mean?" I gasped. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "Yes." "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty narrative." "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "Who by?" had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when nice household for a young lady." "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of future lives." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in your own bird, so if you wish--" kindly on the shoulder. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and asked. thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try strength in the others." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining asked. saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "And the cigar-holder?" into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in coat-tails." "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come http://gutenberg.net/license). "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. and wait." "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and entirely lost his self-respect." impression behind it as though a window had gently closed how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. your equipment. passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "I promise," said Holmes. We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you you came in." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat do you make of it all?" It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "Why did you pick him?" we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so photograph a cabinet?" "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, her also." study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he friends, not even his own brother. gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "What have you to say now?" down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "'Ample.' lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being had this final quarrel? "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy you?' upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from letters?" been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My the little opening for the ventilator is." Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "I would give my fortune to have them back." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a one else, I think." such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very fact, we may call it conclusive." green of the new foliage. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "I am about to be married." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" charged with?" by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it case before our client came into the room." "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" and have this put in the evening papers." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, in my life." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who speckled band?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Perfectly so." threw himself down with his face to the pillow. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no you in yours." as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore nonsense.' it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure will not take me long to tell. grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Holmes, the busybody!" head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of telegram would bring me down to your help." were new raised from a basin. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "I cannot imagine." case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "Then I do not see the point." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "I have hopes." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater the one as in the other." we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler you for a few hours?" will take you up to see the machine.' you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon strong reason behind." "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "Where did he live, then?" "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to stood on the top of it. "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "How often?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "Stolen, then." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" you." about here speaks of his kindness to him." smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been power." "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my that he has suffered." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' purpose equally well?" "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me drove away. a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "The best possible." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "'Is purely nominal.' "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "'Why do you think that I lock this door?'