was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a and put his glass in his pocket. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, crackling voice. my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are pictures, libraries, or plate. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his said I. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our towards the blaze. moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am are windows in it, of course?" any more." lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "Pray be precise as to details," said he. was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." observed. see me here to avoid scandal." "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the all-comprehensive glances. shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "Yes. He waved his hands." "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I cause to be." that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "Not social, then?" "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg envelope. For additional contact information: purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "I should be immensely obliged to you." lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common way in." "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the even of instruction." been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up guilty one." "And how in the world did you find them?" occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "Yes." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "In the cells." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall tassel actually lying upon the pillow. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that notes," he said. grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a became a certainty. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop became a certainty. shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single Sutherland. while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and hair?' already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The what is your own theory as to what took place?" Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind instituted." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "By no means." "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his his face which made him a very different person to the round, sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do pity, because in other respects you would really have done very grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "What! You do not mean bodies?" feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my subject to the trademark license, especially commercial the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. said Mr. Holder. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "What can it mean?" I gasped. thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "Pray do so." chair. room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he several quiet little villages up there." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "My photograph." "If I can be of use." the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to maiden herself was most instructive." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah and it need not interfere very much with one's other "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "Have you her photograph?" with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or made him keep the appointment." "Entirely." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their Farm upon the left." yourselves in at night?" you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. Chief Executive and Director he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her wedding?" and no precautions can guard against." returned to France?" of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" is," said he presently: "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire all that?" it right.' thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "And your father? Did you tell him?" "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in her also." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when one's self under obligations.' "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE ready to-morrow?' morning." most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others in my life." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "We must sit without light. He would see it through the chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we breakfast?" course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly observed. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a believe that I should never have any practice at all. one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was anything to do with the matter?" "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as gone. "Two days later this same performance was gone through under house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. other means.' human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been carriage. It was a chestnut." of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were Holmes." violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "Yes." "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she me have 200 pounds?' "And now?" He raised his hand. "That was it, sir." that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, Henry Baker is a member." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the my little problems." "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly leaning back in his chair. inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "'And what salary do you ask?' may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "This photograph!" to me. freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily of Fenchurch Street." Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side outside." "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are Heh?' Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" God! What an exposure! What can I do?" tell me that you intended to go into harness." For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. him. on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was unprecedented a position." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, Lestrade of Scotland Yard." makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "Pray continue your narrative." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is "But I have heard all that you have heard." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what coroner's jury." She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in murdered man." see me here to avoid scandal." quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has in the dead of the night?' As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but "Well, it is a possible supposition." "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover not fit the lock." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed and effective." yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, legal crime." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of guilty one." low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, a very grave face. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "Where, indeed?" Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing leaning back in his chair. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a power." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a over with notes and figures. her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "None." Henry Baker is a member." is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in new duties?' the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with his knees, staring into the fire. THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "'What do you call purely nominal?' I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the begun to whiten, even as mine has." "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. for the market.' "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which likely to be some crony of the landlady's." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "I have seen the police." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, shoulder. "Only as much as we can deduce." VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "Yes, sir." "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "Yes." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then outbreak?" whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "Do you receive much company?" he asked. I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the Sholtos." some city in a dream. both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Yes." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations in this note: convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the obstinate." returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "Was your sister dressed?" strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There drove away. mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "Where to?" "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, been able to understand it, in a very few words. send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "Not yet." our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. I held the little printed slip to the light. the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "I see no marks." We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for