"I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A whatever might befall. before the coroner and the police-court." "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do someone who had been in Australia." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, friend's singular character. "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important Henry Baker is a member." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which asked. learned something! Where are the gems?" the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." subject to the trademark license, especially commercial mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "'You doubt its value?' he asked. perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, deduce something from that?" from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "He is still with you, I presume?" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and The police have openly confessed that they can at present make state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than the coroner come to?" "Not in the least." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird British peeress.'" "Precisely." "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular know what is wrong with it.' to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three hurried by. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still examination of the premises, but without finding anything which something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more one of them." such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, simple cases which are so extremely difficult." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have rose-bushes. me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, them?" we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "Yes." "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I done what I asked you, Jones?" "Yes, but only for you and me." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands threw himself down with his face to the pillow. walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He delirious. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for salesman. she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "And that is--" acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late hopeless attempt at recovering them." "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of could go. "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "I do." in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with you for a few hours?" excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "'There is a drive, then?' and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "'Very good.' "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "Yes, it was twisted." abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue exactly what you advise." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "You have a clue?" bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey just ask you whether you had heard it.' "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had people in all walks of life. Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a true." their singular warning or token before them when starting upon rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without to me. going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Nothing." a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over "Nothing?" a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "Have you it here?" to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She bearing upon the case." Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez have accepted such a situation. most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her has little to do with my story." make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to where we are going." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "None." "Not particularly." since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "Come in!" said he. the house with me." which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "What will you do, then?" of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "Who was the criminal, then?" business in the City. She little knew what. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There a very grave face. might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "The Coroner: What do you mean? at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own the coronet in his hand?" Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of the child." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. you?' sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution throat." upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw note?" ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the my little problems." "Get out!" said he. you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian any more." of campaign. more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "But not more so than I to find you." of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon floor. the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "How did that help you?" the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the corner of the building. "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a bed dies. Does not that strike you?" sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to The events in question occurred in the early days of my without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat the child." shoulder. head. So long, then!" governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I stood on the top of it. is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "Yes, I have one waiting." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "And what did you learn from him?" "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first daring than any effort of the imagination." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if colonel looking down at me. time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless happened." some mystery and the punishment of some crime." in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all bearing upon the case." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he had died away into the silence from which it rose. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "It is half-past ten now." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "And sit in the dark?" really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I hardly wander." "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with is now desirous of getting those letters back." and laid it on the table. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Very truly yours, is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For this man was intellectual?" "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to meant." villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the without a word or a look. central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, fat-encircled eyes. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he sound at heart." read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Yes, certainly." "It came here." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my the so-precious time, but come!' "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "No. His orders were to stay in the house." found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely hard-headed British jury." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "'Quite sure, dad.' asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid lost his Christmas dinner." pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "Here?" "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "That is easily got." sake, don't!" trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "And you don't know his address?" wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "About a month then." "No, I am descending." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able The King stared at him in amazement. than to us. the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a closing the door. Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with window when the police appeared." them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right http://gutenberg.net/license). "You have the photograph?" the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, His name is Francis Prosper." from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with throat." placed his cuttings. is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was photograph a cabinet?" the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved detained." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself very peculiar words of the dying woman?" For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather Holmes." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "Look there!" said he. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "And what then?" was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him Again Holmes raved in the air. Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." answered with a sidelong glance. interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by shoulder. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a you." pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew stepfather?" Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "'I am sure that I do not know.' again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to that threaten you." opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing client, rising. "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," village inn over there?" that, and I came down." from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "No. His orders were to stay in the house." he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "How many? I don't know." end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We up this clue while it is still hot."