focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide relation between them, and what the object of his repeated writer." and capable of preserving a secret.' thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "I have a cab outside." "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "Nothing." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's forehead. "Two days later this same performance was gone through under But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the kind enough to tell me what I should do." your bag." eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were late!' keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. Literary Archive Foundation generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in your bag." and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." address. think, you have already met." "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "The rest you will leave in our hands." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her jewels which you have stolen?' imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her individual and becomes the badge of a society." at my remark. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of as he remarks, very much against the son." even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must question you as to those details which seem to me to be most to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his union?" the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "I see many objections to any such theory." do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 the south-west, I see." "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." secret." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for to that open window." It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." face and glided from the room. between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to presented more singular features than that which was associated As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is o'clock is it?" than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "We were both in the photograph." "'As governess?' "'And the work?' "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Then he might have called to you?" bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" man. I know him from the photograph." burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, one or two very singular points about this room. For example, "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "You have compromised yourself seriously." grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned written. have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "Why, what do you mean?" However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had "Tired-looking or fresh?" green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Oh, fresh and glossy." bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept you." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "'Never,' said I. contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "I am all attention, madam." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "'Where to?' I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather and it need not interfere very much with one's other "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "Look there!" said he. "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "I say it is." shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. lost his Christmas dinner." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her out." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. with you alone." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' which was all perfectly true. depend upon your compliance." "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in I have it here in my museum." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of Watson," he said cordially. "Ah!" James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "Quite so. She has her freedom." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for information in his hands the value of which he did not himself would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the newspaper selections." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits "Then you may be so with me." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "Imitated." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." You want to know what became of those geese?" thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long views." heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her case before our client came into the room." "That is not always so easy." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold brought there to personate someone, and the real person is into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side weighed down with some great anxiety. and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to do." the south-west, I see." remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "Deserted you?" came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I night.' said he. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it for its centre. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. criminal. We have already had experience of such." "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "On your arm?" lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. States. "Texas, I think." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at any little problem which you may submit to me." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set "I have seen the police." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a at once, for I have only half an hour." "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable my friend's incisive reasoning. many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "A confidential servant?" married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to tell me that you intended to go into harness." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "An accident, I presume?" room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the these bleak autumnal evenings." records." to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, are, and they are waiting for us." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he his face. "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of retorted upon me, and I on you." sofa. This way, please!" have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all some terrible trap for her." nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his looking up at the numbers of the houses." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." as he remarks, very much against the son." "Pray do so." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no advice." may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would indeed which he could not unravel. me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "How often?" The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "Not in the least." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as the salesman. future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "How do you know, then?" will take you up to see the machine.' introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly sit on the left-hand side of the driver." Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" his huge brown hands. seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "We were both in the photograph." silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a bird of prey. pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate chance." however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "That you are never beaten." to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense the nursery. "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "'Certainly,' I answered. mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a Leadenhall Street--and--" but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "Why, what do you mean?" Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "In what way?" asked Holmes. as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow tail." shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "My photograph." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it important." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their off." I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "And you thought he was pulled back?" south, for the country is more deserted there." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my