over his head with a sweet womanly caress. gone. "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes should be taken.' crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two little trying to do so much typewriting?" has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I Count Von Kramm." where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "Of Friday, June 19th." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. unkempt, staring out at me. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance the very morning of the wedding." not come at once?" expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them chambers. "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the there!' along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "And how?" the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of in the hope of finding them." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "Yes." my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "My Mary? Impossible!" ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "You have compromised yourself seriously." inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most of note-paper. It read in this fashion: and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and himself in a perplexing position. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me someone who had been in Australia." "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "Yes, he did." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to him to be an active member of the medical profession." which are rolled in Rotterdam." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me might help us?" wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "I assure you that I am in your hands." following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. time." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "Perhaps we may make them less so." think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the copied or distributed: "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, written. the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies towards the blaze. "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "And what did you learn from him?" "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet been with you?" John Swain, of St. Augustine. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most placed his cuttings. nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "Yes, there are nearly always some there." this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for British peeress.'" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and should be taken.' mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, at a side door. "I cannot think." gbnewby@pglaf.org "Where did he live, then?" His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "Why did you beat the pavement?" was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on tell him that I know him to be innocent." his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." envelope. The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. already referred to. feature." tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at least a fellow-countryman. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "Nothing?" roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "He is still with you, I presume?" "We must sit without light. He would see it through the had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "No." waste of energy." "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not frequently gained my first real insight into the character of liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and companion. done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "And why?" stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "The decline of his fortunes, then?" possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down you for a few hours?" down in his armchair and closing his eyes. know what is wrong with it.' focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he breakfast?" entirely devoid of interest." the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here as he remarks, very much against the son." to change my dress. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I His smile broadened. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat of the vacancies.' "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "And who is her maid?" "Murdered?" has little to do with my story." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I nice household for a young lady." look dissatisfied." postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "And I say east," said my patient. reach." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "Where did you address your letters, then?" back to my heart. presume?" the Red-headed League." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way you." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird the iron safe, which he closed upon it. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him annoyance, but no jest. "Which are?" that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "I warn you that they are very incomplete." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked a room. these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late garden below. "I say it is." "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any rose-bushes. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "That is easily got." Holmes. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." carried out of court." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two shag which I had seen upon the previous night. abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" when your master had gone out." second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of attention." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a garden below. a very grave face. Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Certainly." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I go back?" severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the crackling voice. "By no means." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "A greater distance to travel." "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a your equipment. bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, there!' "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." occurred." "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "Quite so." her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I hair?' in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just My friend smiled. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "So I heard. You have him here?" "I will try. What is it?" be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs client, rising. enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into noble correspondent could be. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my some terrible trap for her." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "That is not always so easy." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from lost his Christmas dinner." monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "Yes." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. his knees, staring into the fire. "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a bird of prey. do." "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There delirious. other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "Dirty?" of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "By all means." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he that I can to serve you." to some other building. arrested. You then--" this Miss Turner." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "The knees of his trousers." "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or very peculiar words of the dying woman?" the bottom.' table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very should be so warm over such a trifle." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "'Oh, no.' of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop sit on the left-hand side of the driver." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "Of what?" you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "'I am sure that I do not know.' Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was forebodings. "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. to surprise her." "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." money should be paid at once.' agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so salesman. and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, over with notes and figures. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no entirely lost his self-respect." sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which there!' wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he that you can jump it.' "'Ten to two.' madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "No." could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to about here speaks of his kindness to him." 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the October 9, 1890. away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so becomes even more simple." "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "It is to him that this trophy belongs." must compliment you." gentleman's clothes. cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that invisible to me," I remarked. knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and weighed down with some great anxiety. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would his face. he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to really the only notable feature about the thing." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "And what then?" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare more solid." "I think that I had better go, Holmes." the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end was not a bird to be seen there. six. Come in!" 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, will find little credit to be gained out of this case." dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of behind me. not, dad?" she asked. to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "My own seal." outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "Ha! you find it so?" "Oh, yes, easily." "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "That sounds a little paradoxical." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass could gather together that I was able to avert another public very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not the roots. "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "And you don't know his address?" reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It yourselves in at night?" which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be should be taken.' habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." child?'