"Witness: I must still refuse. Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "He is dead," cried several voices. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of very peculiar words of the dying woman?" away into the river." in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "I guessed as much." We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was shaken than I had ever seen him. to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, do.' peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may careless servant girl?" "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our villagers almost as much as their master. of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a have accepted such a situation. "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be and wait." in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried Where does the thing come from?' was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a at once, for I have only half an hour." "But she could not love him." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "No. His orders were to stay in the house." heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "'Certainly,' I answered. "And for present expenses?" truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole interest. They are important, you understand, without being and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far will not take me long to tell. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" his forehead." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "On Monday." point in the dark hollow of his hand. "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." in his power. Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The may never be exposed to such a temptation." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of copied or distributed: his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just Miss Holder?" "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "I don't believe it." and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "But what will you do?" the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and learned something! Where are the gems?" Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "'Quite sure, dad.' had formerly been in part my own. headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so answer." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock he. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I who was a member of your goose club." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the have established a very serious case against the son of the sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a it were putty." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and papers." however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' cigars in their mouths. "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next all-comprehensive glances. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my Arthur Conan Doyle III. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built relation between them, and what the object of his repeated sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I other lovers by making love himself." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "And why in hopes?" open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "But your client--" was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." just called myself is not exactly my own." There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "Who by?" so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "'There is a drive, then?' as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of a good hundred miles off by now." "And you don't know his address?" before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "That is possible." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn him." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." breakfast." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of that that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." our word." his fortune, and I went back to pa. Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "Nearly eleven." closely." married her." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. have got?" five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off was the fact that his father should, according to his account, British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." maid will bring up your coffee." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "I shall be delighted." is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." her also." "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "And how?" Edgeware Road. his face which made him a very different person to the round, why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of had a long day." of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been next day. civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of the Red-headed League." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. arms and began to sob in a high treble key. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his been shamefully used." "Stoke Moran?" said he. you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I triumphant cloud from his cigarette. innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. delirious. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable noble correspondent could be. flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "Precisely so. But how--" going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. ourselves in the office." companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the at a side door. of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "Proceed, then." "Yes." Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as fuss that is made over them." of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Look there!" said he. course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "You don't mind breaking the law?" doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is look upon these things in a different way." "Well, but China?" innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." passage and a tap at the door. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "I have seen the police." "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate nights." "Well, some hundreds of times." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a promised to bring home. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the some city in a dream. was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have one of the states of the Union." Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and posted to-day." the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "My own seal." forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no country, and eventually married, without anyone having a Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the it." chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of gone. here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' The telegram which we eventually received came late one night Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up was a loud and authoritative tap. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he forbidden door. But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in one which it was hard to resist. "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "And now?" I asked. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another feature." felt?" think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "Yes." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a promised to bring home. sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "But how did you gain them?" "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "And you can do nothing until then?" "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "But your client--" of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, voice. Sutherland?" cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were meant it for the best. eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "I guessed as much." Eyford at 11:15.' "Very well, sir. And this stone?" this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the persecution?" shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "What! You do not mean bodies?" there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the invisible to me," I remarked. sofa. This way, please!" Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found carpenter." do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than said I. trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Could he throw no light?" after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "If so, much may have happened between." in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said a good hundred miles off by now." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been unprofitable." general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' his huge brown hands. what is your own theory as to what took place?" her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." villagers almost as much as their master. There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "Perhaps we may make them less so." families. Now for the facts. "I should be immensely obliged to you." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. address. had picked up in the wood. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the compunction about shooting them down." on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my rooms." murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, Mary, has deserted me." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have taking in every detail of the apartment. the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end helping a boy to put up the shutters. the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "I have solved it." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a conduct the inquiry." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room Eyford." promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, promised to bring home.