brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "I have come for advice." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and in his hands." set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. my little problems." At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "May I see it?" Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked Does that suggest anything?" "What can it mean?" I gasped. throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from not, dad?" she asked. wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled within hail.' which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "Then I am your man." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been records." front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That been shamefully used." Miss Holder?" was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "The Cedars?" tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "BALLARAT." research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of union?" "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about works. "Stolen." "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for served to weaken the effect. and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up anything to do with the matter?" the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "'Which dealer's?' "That is also quite modern," said the lady. "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond things are very often connected not with the larger but with the beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "Yes." beg that you will break it off." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, dates and names. glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of see me here to avoid scandal." to surprise her." "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came that there was nothing in it, after all." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "'Yes, sir.' successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, place, I think that there is good ground to think that the door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, way in." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "Yes." very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman he bowed and left the room without another word. Mary, has deserted me." spare." "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said IS tear off another piece?' any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," and no precautions can guard against." social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "I am sure." connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. appeal." almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "I don't believe it." inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent happened." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. the stable lane now." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and remarked. some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "Of Friday, June 19th." cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "Who was the criminal, then?" were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's suspect him." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming was the fact that his father should, according to his account, not personally threatened." assist you in forming an opinion." "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late instituted." however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "What I expected to see." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported breakfast and whispered something to her husband. meant." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend to have been novel and of interest." suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. were wasted." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "Then, how do you know?" "How can you tell that?" the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the a monotonous occupation." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the I was concerned in it." that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I "'Yes, sir.' which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen was shining brightly. some terrible trap for her." profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the man. recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "But the mystery?" flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "Yes, at the mines." bled considerably." for its centre. "Then he might have called to you?" "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the train.' professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police laugh and put his lips to my ear. time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him invisible to me," I remarked. a good hundred miles off by now." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his which our visitor detailed to us. "Do you receive much company?" he asked. province." following enigmatical notices: to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "What have you to say now?" there is a decided draught." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "But who is he?" "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" and laid it on the table. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "But how did you gain them?" "How often?" all-comprehensive glances. retorted upon me, and I on you." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "We were both in the photograph." "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine Sutherland?" "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have will not take me long to tell. usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed a room. of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too foresight and the moral retrogression?" not personally threatened." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, this poor creature." from the brougham. My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and have not had my rubber." against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, before, for it was considerably after midnight. gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "Yes, sir." determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. results." which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "You horrify me." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch to surprise her." "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No is four-and-twenty." and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of charge against him will break down." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of back to my heart. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" him to be an active member of the medical profession." "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "And how?" forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, roused himself from his reverie. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he My friend smiled. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "What! You do not mean bodies?" "And you don't know his address?" acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility from the brougham. the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge not come at once?" "I am still in the dark." served to weaken the effect. and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's the little opening for the ventilator is." fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "What have you to say now?" "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of reach." "On your arm?" you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have 1.E.9. am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else public press." he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, if only as a check to my own memory." lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced as he folded up the epistle. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I strength of mind to control. them?" "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after in your London, you will know that the office of the company is that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" mysterious business." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "Very truly yours, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "None. Neville wrote those words." had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "Yes." "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how with some details as to your case." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your to-night?' foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "I will, Miss Turner." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "She will not sell." against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to his huge brown hands. License. You must require such a user to return or The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The test if we have an answer to our advertisement." a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "'I am sure that I do not know.' corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the Doctor, of the paper and the date." into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger disturbance in my wife." unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had hour?' gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying do you make of it all?" "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in wedding?" and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood which our visitor detailed to us. upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "I was sure that I might rely on you." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' British peeress.'" if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" troubles have been weighing upon his mind. Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his served to weaken the effect. providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up most important business. It is probable that he will be away all shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding straightened it out again. the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an was already answered. "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when said I. home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the imbecility!" he cried. central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "'You cannot say what it was?' "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." his wife has ceased to love him." abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "He is dead," cried several voices. "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was knowledge of the world." which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a You can understand that this register and diary may implicate "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look